Pedagogical Practices in Indonesia
Muhammad Zuhdi
Introduction
The study presented in this chapter examines two innovative pedagogical
approaches in Indonesia: PAIKEM (active and creative learning methods)
and GASING (fun learning). Some of the challenges that the Indonesian
government is facing in the realm of education are discussed, including the
relatively low quality of Indonesian human resources compared to many
other developing countries. It is clear that in order to improve the quality of
its human resources, Indonesia must focus on assisting teachers to improve
their pedagogical practices.
Background
Indonesia’s features and recent history
Indonesia is an archipelago of over 13,400 islands (BIG, 2014) and is the
largest country in South-East Asia. With more than 230 million people (Biro
Pusat Statitik, 2014b), Indonesia is the fifth most populous country in the
world (Central Intelligence Agency, 2014). Indonesia has many ethnic groups,
the largest of which are the Javanese, Sundanese, Batak, Aceh, Malay, Bugis
and Dayak, and the country officially recognizes many different religious
beliefs, including Islam, Christianity, Buddhism, Hinduism and Confucianism
(Republic of Indonesia, 1965). With such a diverse population, Indonesia is
at risk of potential ethnic and religious conflicts. Therefore, the Indonesian
people have a set of common principles known as pancasila^11 that serve to
unify the people. While the country has many different languages, the official
language is Bahasa Indonesia.
11 Pancasila means ‘five principles’. The principles are: (1) Believe in one God; (2) Just and
civilized humanity; (3) The unity of Indonesia; (4) People’s sovereignity (democracy)
guided by wisdom and implemented in the form of deliberations among representatives;
(5) Social justice for all Indonesian people (Yudi Latif, 2011).