ENDANG DARSIH Indonesian EFL Teachers’ Perception 192 INDONESIAN EFL TEACHERS’ PERCEPTION ON THE IMPLEMENTATION OF 2013 ENGLISH CURRICULUM Endang Darsih Department of English Education, Faculty of Teacher Training and Education, The University of Kuningan, Indonesia Email: she_n2@yahoo.com APA Citation: Darsih, E. (2014). Indonesian EFL teachers’ perception on the implementation of 2013 English curriculum. English Review: Journal of English Education, 2(2), 192-199 Received: 15-03-2014 Accepted: 27-03-2013 Published: 01-06-2014 Abstract: Since 2014-2015 academic year, the Ministry of Education and Culture of Republic of Indonesia finally decided to implement the 2013 Curriculum. Restoring character education and improving students’ creative thinking are the main reasons of the new curriculum development. This study employed teachers’ understanding and perception on the implementation of 2013 English Curriculum and identified problems encountered by the teachers in implementing the 2013 English curriculum. Through qualitative design, the study was conducted at one of vocational high schools in Kuningan, West Java. This study reveals that the teacher’s understanding toward 2013 curriculum is quite close to the basic principles of the curriculum and most of teachers claim that the new curriculum cannot be easily implemented at the moment since they find several problems in implementing 2013 English curriculum. They got difficulties in applying new learning revolution, developing assessment rubrics and the shortage of English duration at school will not ensure to improve students’ competence. It also recommended that the teachers should put more efforts on applying the 2013 curriculum in the teaching and learning process by joining any training, workshop and improve their creativity and adapt to the advance of knowledge and technology. Keywords: 2013 English Curriculum, teachers’ understanding, teachers’ perception This 2014-2015 academic year, government finally decided to implement the new designed curriculum, the 2013 Curriculum. Thousands of schools, ranging from elementary (SD), junior high (SMP), and senior high (SMA) schools have participated in the try out. This curriculum was officially launched on 15 July 2014 starting with first, fourth, seventh and 10th graders. The main reasons to justify the implementation of the new curriculum is because the government wants to restore character education and improve students’ creative thinking. The 2013 curriculum is still new for our society because it has just been implemented this year, so there is not yet research reports related to the 2013 curriculum. However, the 2013 curriculum is the development INTRODUCTION The Indonesian Ministry of Education and Culture has made some curriculum adjustments which consider certain points such as what students should learn, how is the content and learning sequences given to the students, and how will the lesson started (Hartoyo, 2011). This adjustment consequently changed the previous curriculum called Kurikulum Tingkat Satuan Pendidikan (KTSP) or School Based Curriculum (SBC) with the new one called the 2013 Curriculum. Here, curriculum is a set of plans and rules about goals, contents, and learning materials as well as the way of using it as guidance for implementation of learning activities aimed at a specific goal National Education Standardized Institution (BSNP, 2006). 193 ENGLISH REVIEW: Journal of English Education ISSN 2301-7554 Vol. 2, Issue 2, June 2014 http://journal.uniku.ac.id/index.php/ERJEE or perfection of KTSP or School-based curriculum, therefore some previous research on school-based curriculum are taken in this study. One of the studies was conducted by the Indonesian Curriculum Research Centre, which is a government agency under the Department of the National Education (Pusat Kurikulum, 2007 in Sulfasyah, 2013). The purpose of the study was to monitor the implementation of the KTSP in primary, junior high and senior high schools at the national level. The study was conducted in the capital cities of 33 provinces across Indonesia. Data were collected from four different sources: the Department of Education both at the provincial and district level, school principals, teachers, and parents from school boards. Using questionnaires, interviews, observations and document analysis, this study revealed that most of the schools involved had not implemented the KTSP effectively. In addition to this research, several teacher researchers (Jayani, 2008; Rochminah, 2008 in Sulfasyah, 2013) have investigated the use of new teaching approaches, which reflect some of the underlying pedagogical concepts outlined in the KTSP, such as contextual teaching and learning, cooperative and collaborative work and discovery learning. These studies were undertaken in senior high schools and focused on particular subject areas, such as mathematics and science. They found that where teachers had used the new teaching approaches, there was evidence of improved learning outcomes for their students. Thus, this research suggests there may be some areas and disciplines where implementation of the school- based KTSP has been relatively effective. The last, the research conducted by Directorate General of Teacher Quality Improvement (Dirjen PMPTK), Ministry of National Education on the School-Based Curriculum (KTSP) implementation in schools in Central Java year 2010, it was found that there were a number of obstacles in the implementation of KTSP. They are : (1) the insufficient number of media and instructional aids to support the implementation of KTSP; (2) teachers do not sufficiently and thoroughly understand KTSP; (3) insufficient numbers of workshops, guidance, and reference in developing KTSP; (4) insufficient time allocation and students’ study load; (5) too many variations of materials given by trainers in KTSP training; (6) training for teachers in rural areas need to be intensified (Hartoyo, 2011). The Ministry of Education and Culture states that 2013 Curriculum, a means of integrating values systems, knowledge and skills, has orientation on developing the learners’ competencies, the changing of teaching-learning methodology towards teaching- learning process which gives priorities on the learning experiences through observing, inquiring, associating, and communicating so as to enhance the values of competitiveness and build prime characters. To achieve all of these, the teaching methodology involves not only exploration, elaboration, confirmation, but also observation, inquiry, analysis, reasoning, description, inference, evaluation and creation (Kemendikbud, 2012: 25 in Srijono, 2013: 59). According to Richards (1985: 70) curriculum is an educational program in which it is: (a) the educational purpose of the program (the ends); (b) the content, teaching procedures and learning experiences which will be necessary to achieve this purpose (the means); (c) some means for assessing whether or not the educational ends have been achieved. Brown (1995: 19) defines curriculum as a series of activities that contribute to the growth of consensus among the staff, ENDANG DARSIH Indonesian EFL Teachers’ Perception 194 faculty, administration, and students. This series of curriculum activities will provide a framework that helps teachers to accomplish whatever combination of teaching activities is most suitable in their professional judgment for a given situation, that is, a framework that helps the students to learn as efficiently and effectively as possible in the given situation. The question is whether this 2013 curriculum can fulfill public’s needs and expectation or not. Whether it can play a role in improving the quality of education in Indonesia or not. Again, although curriculum is an essential element in determining the education quality, there are other factors that we should consider like teachers’ professionalism, supports of society and environment, as well as media. It is impossible to achieve high quality education by solely depending on a good curriculum without the support of those other factors. Considering the explanation above, therefore, the writer has investigated one of vocational high schools in Kuningan. It intends to portray the implementation of the 2013 English curriculum. This study was sought to do the following: 1) to find out teachers’ understanding toward the 2013 English curriculum, 2) to find out teachers’ perception on the 2013 English curriculum, and 3) to find out problems faced by teachers in implementing the 2013 English curriculum. The result of the study provides teachers and administrators as well as government with empirical evidence on the implementation of 2013 curriculum and its benefits. Further, the result of the research is expected to give a valuable contribution in developing the teaching of English based on 2013 curriculum. It is also expected to be a foundation of making policies for the school’s authorities to improve the quality of their professions. METHOD The research is conducted in qualitative design because it investigates a phenomenon which is described by Cresswell (1994) as an approach which inquires often makes knowledge claims based primarily on constructivist perspectives. The researcher physically goes to the people, setting, site or institution to interview or record in its natural setting. The research was conducted in one of state vocational high schools in Kuningan because this school is trying out this curriculum. Besides, the writer has an easy access to the school; she was graduated from this vocational high school so she is interested in doing the research. Two English teachers are chosen as the sample of the research because they teach the first graders in which 2013 curriculum is tried out. In collecting the data, the research used two instruments. They were questionnaires and interview. The questionnaire was distributed to gain the data about the teachers’ perception on the implementation of 2013 English curriculum. There are ten closed questions which were answered by the teachers. It used Likert-scale which consists of a group of statements that should be marked by the teachers. There are three responses category: S (setuju/ agree), N (netral/neutral), TS (tidak setuju/diagree) if he does not agree. For more detailed of the statements, it can be seen in Appendix. The researcher asked feedback from the colleague in the school to get the validity of the questionnaire. The interview format used was open-ended questions which allow the respondents to give totally free answers. Two English teachers of the first graders are interviewed by using Indonesian language and English. They were asked several questions related to the implementation of 2013 English curriculum. 195 ENGLISH REVIEW: Journal of English Education ISSN 2301-7554 Vol. 2, Issue 2, June 2014 http://journal.uniku.ac.id/index.php/ERJEE Interview and questionnaires were administered at the same time; on the first of May 2014. The data of interview is then transcribed which is finally analyzed and interpreted. So does questionnaire. Most of the interviews were conducted in English. Nevertheless there were a number of occasions whereby Bahasa Indonesia is used as the respective respondents felt more comfortable using the language. Each interview took approximately 30 minutes, was audio-tapped and then transcribed by the interview as soon as possible. The data taken from interview and questionnaires were analyzed qualitatively. Since the topic is about 2013 curriculum, so the focus of analysis is on its components; how teachers comprehend goals or objectives, content, method and evaluation or assessment based on 2013 curriculum. The writer also analyzes the problems faced by teachers in implementing this 2013 curriculum. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION The purpose of this study is to portray the implementation of 2013 curriculum in teaching of English. The following are the findings of this study: Teachers’ understanding Based on the interview, it is found that teacher’s understanding about 2013 curriculum is quite close to the basic principles of 2013 curriculum. Their answers to the questions are closely related to the extant theories of the curriculum. Regarding definition and objectives of 2013 curriculum, from the interview, reveals that teachers know well about 2013 curriculum including the objectives of the curriculum. It is also found that the implementation of 2013 Curriculum has its purpose to build a prime character of learners as well as knowledge and skills in order to encourage and prepare the learners to play their roles in society positively and meaningfully because both teachers think that the previous curriculum only focuses on improvement of knowledge and skill or cognitive aspect and not pay more attention on attitude and students’ creative thinking. Background of 2013 Curriculum Based on the interview, it is found that both teachers have same understanding about background of 2013 curriculum implementation. It is revealed from the interview: “Sebetulnya tidak hanya pada degradasi moral saja, menurut penelitian bahwa keberhasilan seseorang di kemudian hari sangat dipengaruhi oleh penanaman sikap dan pola asuh yang ditanamkan sebelumnya. Misalnya orang yang secara akademik dia bagus, tapi ternyata tidak memiliki sikap kreatif, sikap kreatif itu tidak bisa hanya diperoleh dengan transfer knowledge, sikap baik ditanamkan tidak ujug-ujug atau tiba-tiba, tapi butuh proses, sehingga sejak awal pemerintah berupaya untuk menciptakan warga yang kreatif, inovatif, dan produktif. Itu landasan filosofisnya yang saya tahu. Pendidikan terlalu menitikberatkan pada pengetahuan atau aspek kognitif dan kurang bermuatan karakter yang mendalam”. “Actually, not only the moral degradation, according to research that person’s success in later life is strongly influenced by the cultivation of attitudes and parenting is implanted previously. For example, people who are academically good, but he did not has a creative attitude that can not be obtained only by the transfer of knowledge, good attitude instilled not suddenly, but it takes the process, so that from the outset the government is attempting to create a creative, innovative, and productive citizen. It was a philosophical foundation that I know. Education is too focused on cognitive aspects and knowledge or lack of character depth charged”. ENDANG DARSIH Indonesian EFL Teachers’ Perception 196 It indicates that the background of 2013 curriculum is the importance of good character of students; therefore the 2013 curriculum is aimed at preparing students who are creative, innovative, productive and “berakhlak mulia”. Students who are academically good do not ensure that they have good attitude and excellent characters. This attitude is not coming immediately, it needs process. Good attitude and characters can’t be taught just by transferring knowledge, but it need the real model, therefore it is a must for teachers to have four important competencies namely pedagogical competence, social competence, professional competence, and personality competence. Teachers should be a good model for their students. Approach and Method According to Permendikbud No. 81a Tahun 2013, it is stated that the process of learning in 2013 Curriculum is conducting by concerning five main learning experiences: observing, questioning, collecting information, associating, and communicating. What teachers said in the interview is in line with this principle as stated in the following: “...dari konten tidak ada perbedaan yang signifikan, cuma yang lebih menonjol dalam kurikulum 2013 adalah scientific approach itu. Selama ini ketika mendengar KTSP tidak diekplisitkan anak itu harus mengalami observing, questioning, exploring, associating, communicating or networking”. (“... Of the content no significant difference, just more prominent in the curriculum of 2013 is the scientific approach. During this time when listening KTSP, does not explicitly have to go through observing, questioning, exploring, associating, communicating or networking”.) Assessment Based on the interview, revealed that both teachers have similar understanding about assessment. They comprehend that assessment must be authentic. It means that teacher must observe, assess a real student’s ability, not only in the end of the process of learning, but while the process, even in the pre activity. Teachers’ Perception Perception in this study is defined as what teachers think and feel about the 2013 curriculum based on their experiences in implementing it. It is found from the questionnaire; teachers think that although the 2013 curriculum is just a modification from a previous curriculum, 2013 curriculum and its implementation are still confusing so it is hard to be implemented at the moment. They have such a perception since they rarely join a kind of training or workshop dealing with the 2013 curriculum. It is revealed from the interview: Teacher: “Untuk pelatihan tentang kurikulum 2013 pernah, saya pernah mengikuti sosialisasi kurikulum 2013 kalau tidak salah baru sekali.” (“For the 2013 curriculum training ever, I’ve followed the socialization of 2013 curriculum I think it was only once.” It is also found from the questionnaire that both teachers agree that socialization is a prominent effort to determine the success of the 2013 curriculum. This implies that though 2013 Curriculum is not a new curriculum, it is still confusing especially for those who are lack of understanding of this curriculum. It indicates that socialization of the 2013 curriculum is crucial to conduct frequently. In other words, the socialization of the 2013 197 ENGLISH REVIEW: Journal of English Education ISSN 2301-7554 Vol. 2, Issue 2, June 2014 http://journal.uniku.ac.id/index.php/ERJEE curriculum is an urgent need to conduct to make teachers familiar with the new features which do not exists in the previous curriculum. Nevertheless, the two teachers think that 2013 curriculum is most appropriate curriculum to be implemented in Indonesia nowadays regarding the recent conditions of Indonesia. It is revealed from the interview: Teacher: “I do agree with the implementation of 2013 curriculum, but it must be adjusted in some things. I don’t think by available textbook it will kill teacher’s creativity as many people said, because the team writing the book is eligible. But I think that the textbook is not the only source for the teacher, teacher must enrich their knowledge, for example they can download the material from internet to adjust with the real life. Mastery of technology is a must for teacher.” From other questionnaire’s items, it is found that pre-service teacher #1 and pre-service teacher #2 have the same opinion. Both agree that curriculum is a compulsory reference or guidance in the teaching-learning process. However they think that 2013 curriculum cannot be used to solve any problem of education in Indonesia. These indicate that curriculum is an absolute requirement for education at school. It cannot be apart from education or instruction. Since education is a deliberate effort, a plan is needed to guide the effort and the term ‘curriculum’ generally refers to this plan. The last is about assessment. From the questionnaire’s item number eight it is found that both teachers agree that they find it hard to apply authentic assessment. They were accustomed to assess the final product by giving students tests, assignments and so on. Now, based on 2013 curriculum they are pushed to assess students’ competency comprehensively, they not only assess students knowledge but also their attitude, behavior and performance through observations and rubrics. This is quite difficult for teacher because of lack of preparation. Probably when the format or rubrics are provided by school or government it will help teachers in applying authentic assessment. It is revealed from the interview: Teacher: “In 2013 curriculum assessment must be authentic. It means that teacher must observe, assess a real students ability, not only in the end of the process of learning, but while the process, even in the pre activity, for example we have to prepare material, state the objective or goal, teacher process must be met with the objective that he/she want to accomplish. In short, both teachers have similar perception on 2013 curriculum. In general, their perception indicates that the two teachers agree but still doubtful in implementing 2013 curriculum. In addition, most of teachers face difficulties in applying authentic assessment. In one side, they agree that applying 2013 curriculum, as a reference and guidance in teaching-learning process, is appropriate in Indonesia nowadays regarding the recent conditions of Indonesia. Problems Based on the interview, it is found that there are three problems faced by the teachers in implementing 2013 curriculum. First, it is quite hard to apply authentic assessment because teachers tend to assess final product of students competency. As we know that in 2013 curriculum English learning is assessed by authentic assessment or alternative assessment which gives students opportunity to apply not only knowledge but also skill and attitude inside the classroom and outside the ENDANG DARSIH Indonesian EFL Teachers’ Perception 198 classroom. It is aimed at giving feedback on any students’ language ability in the real situation. It indicates that teachers must assess students competency comprehensively, teacher must observe, assess the real student’s ability, not only in the end of the process of learning, but also during the process. Authentic assessment not only assess final product but also respects students’ thinking ability behind assignment and learning process. Therefore it pushes teachers to develop assessment rubrics. Rubric is developed for every assignment and should describe competency that must be achieved by the students. For those who have not become accustomed to this kind of assessment find it difficult to develop the rubrics especially for assessing students’ attitude. Second one, teachers need to adapt with the learning revolution based on 2013 curriculum. As we know that the 2013 curriculum emphasizes a modern pedagogical dimension in the learning process by using scientific approach. Scientific approach covers five steps namely observing, questioning, associating, experimenting, and networking (Syahmadi, 2013: 35). By using this approach, the teachers are pushed to use multimedia to support their teaching and to be creative in arranging short questions for the students. It is found from the interview that the role of teachers in this case just as facilitator, they let their students to solve the problems and do not help students much in the teaching-learning process. Students-centered learning should be achieved in the learning process to make them independent. However English teachers find it hard to apply scientific approach. For example, when observing, teacher asks students to watch a video between about making a reservation. Ideally after watching or observing a video, students should ask question and discuss what they watch and listen on the video with others by using English. The problem is students especially the first graders find it difficult to express their ideas, their opinions and their findings in English because they tend to use their mother tongue therefore teachers play an important role in this step to guide their students for examples by giving some clues in order to make students speak English. Another problem related to learning approach is teachers’ competency. This scientific approach demands teacher to be creative, master technology and enrich their knowledge. Nevertheless, some teachers are not able to operate more advanced-technology tools/instruments as their media in teaching English in class. The last, In English 2013 curriculum, the duration of English is very short, only two credit hours, so it’s hard for teachers to provide or improve students’ competence by giving them exercises and opportunity to practice English. The shortage of time does not only influence ideal objective of education, but also politically and economically on the teachers. CONCLUSION Considering the results of data analysis, some points can be concluded. First, the teachers’ understanding toward 2013 English curriculum is quite close to the basic principles of the curriculum. Second, dealing with the teachers’ perception on 2013 curriculum, this study revealed that 2013 curriculum is still not easy to be implemented at the moment. Third, teachers find several problems in implementing 2013 English curriculum which are difficulties in applying new learning revolution, developing assessment rubrics and shortage of English time at school will not ensure to improve students’ competence. 199 ENGLISH REVIEW: Journal of English Education ISSN 2301-7554 Vol. 2, Issue 2, June 2014 http://journal.uniku.ac.id/index.php/ERJEE It is recommended that the teachers put more efforts on applying the 2013 Curriculum in the teaching and learning process. In other words, the teachers have to improve their various teaching methods, improve their creativity and adapt to the advancement of knowledge and technology. As a result, the teaching and learning process will be enjoying and make the students more motivated in learning. The teachers should also improve their language competence and performance since they become the “model” for the students in acquiring the language competencies besides the other sources of learning. It is also important for the teachers to join any training, workshop and socialization of this 2013 curriculum to get deep understanding since such activities will help them to implement the curriculum well. REFERENCES Badan Standar Nasional Pendidikan. (2006). Panduan Penyusunan Kurikulum Tingkat Satuan Pendidikan Jenjang Pendidikan Dasar dan Menengah. Jakarta: BSNP. Brown, J. D. (1995). The Elements of Language Curriculum – A Systematic Approach to Program Development. Heinle & Heinle Publishers. Boston. United States of America. Creswell, J. W. (1994). Research design qualitative and quantitative approaches. London: Sage Publisher. Hartoyo. (2011). A handout about curriculum and material development in English language teaching. Panduan Penguatan Proses Pembelajaran Sekolah Menengah Pertama. Kemendikbud Dirjen Dikdasmen. 2013 Salinan Peraturan Menteri Pendidikan dan Kebudayaan Republik Indonesia Nomor 65 Tahun 2013 Tentang Standar Proses. Salinan Peraturan Menteri Pendidikan dan Kebudayaan Republik Indonesia Nomor 66) Tahun 2013 Tentang Standar Penilaian. Salinan Peraturan Menteri Pendidikan dan Kebudayaan Republik Indonesia Nomor 68 (SMP), 69 (SMA) Tahun 2013 Tentang Standar Proses. Salinan Peraturan Menteri Pendidikan dan Kebudayaan Republik Indonesia Nomor 81A Tahun 2013 Tentang Implementasi Kurikulum. Sulfasyah. (2013). Investigating the implementation of the Indonesian KTSP (School-Based Curriculum) in the teaching of writing in year two. Thesis. Edith Cowan University. Perth, Western Australia Richards, J. C. (2001). Curriculum development in language teaching. Cambridge University Press. United Kingdom. Syahmadi, H. (2013). Bedah kurikulum 2013 bagi guru bahasa Inggris. Bandung: CV. Adoya Mitra Sejahtera Srijono, D. (2013). Principles of English Instructional Design – Modul PLPG English Language Teaching and Learning Theory and Practice. Badan Pengembangan Sumber Daya Manusia. Pendidikan Kebudayaan dan Penjaminan Mutu Pendidikan (BPSDMP-PMP). Indonesia.