changed. Teaching was initially interpreted as one-way instruction from a
teacher to the students. This understanding has been challenged by the new
understanding of learning that requires the active acquisition of knowledge
by the learner, instead of just listening and taking notes. There is ongoing
debate over the best ways of learning, so discussion and research about
pedagogy continue.
Putting aside the different approaches, pedagogy remains central to
education. Every educator and parent expects that the students will have
good learning experiences at school and build their competencies to become
better individuals in many ways. The biggest challenge that any educator
faces is to ensure that every student is able to learn effectively.
There are at least three characteristics of conventional Indonesian classrooms
that make students unable to learn effectively and perform at their best
academically. The first is the large numbers of students in the classrooms.
Many schools have classes with around 40 students. Only some schools can
manage to have as few as 20 to 25 students in a class. The second characteristic
is the one-way teaching method. Lecturing is the most popular method
of teaching, and students have very little chance to respond to what their
teachers say. The third characteristic is rote-learning. This is not only related
to religious education, in which children are asked to memorize religious
texts, it is also applicable to most other subjects, including mathematics,
science and social science. For example, in mathematics students are taught
to memorize formulas instead of understanding concepts. Soedijarto notes
that, in general, the learning process in Indonesia is one of ‘listening, taking
notes and memorizing’ (2008, p. 53). This approach involves teachers treating
students as passive individuals who come to school to see, listen to and take
notes on whatever their teachers instruct.
The efforts to alter the way Indonesian teachers instruct students commenced
in the 1980s. Through the 1984 curriculum, for instance, the government
introduced a teaching-learning approach called Cara Belajar Siswa Aktif (CBSA),
the Student Active Learning Strategy. This required teachers to facilitate
students’ learning through various active learning and cooperative activities
(Soedijarto, 2010, p. 58). Since then, active learning has been promoted as a
teaching approach that makes learning more meaningful to students. Yet,
changing the way teachers teach has not been easy, and most teachers
continue to use old-fashioned teaching strategies (Soedijarto, 2008, p. 53).