Rangkuman Kesimpulan Pembelajaran dalam Pengambilan Keputusan Berbasi Nilai Kebajikan

Pratap Triloka KHD yaitu Ing Ngarso Sung Tulodho, Ing Madya Mangunkarsa, Tut Wuri handayani, yang berarti bahwa pada saat seorang pemimpin berada di depan, maka dia harus dapat menjadi teladan. Pada saat berada di tengah, maka dia harus bisa membangun motivasi/semangat. Dan pada saat berada di belakang, maka seorang pemimpin harus bisa memberikan dukungan atau motivasi. Pengambilan keputusan yang baik oleh pemimpin dapat member manfaat dalam tiga hal ini, yaitu dapat menjadi keputusan yang baik dan menjadi contoh nilai, keputusan yang memberikan semangat dan motivasi, serta keputusan yang mendorong dan mendukung anggotanya.

Untuk dapat melakukan pengambilan keputusan yang baik dengan manfaat seperti di atas, seorang pemimpin harus memiliki dan kuat dalam menghidup nilai-nilai. Sebenarnya sadar atau tidak sadar, kita hidup memegang nilai-nilai yang kita percayai. Nilai itulah yang akan tercermin pada keputusan pemimpin. Misalnya nilai pemimpin adalah kepedulian, maka dalam pengambilan keputusannya ia akan mempertimbangkan dampak-dampak keputusannya secara hati-hati kepada seluruh anggotanya, dan sebagainya.

Pengambilan keputusan sendiri merupakan proses pembelajaran bagi pemimpin. Pemimpin belajar dari keputusan yang diambil, dan berupaya mengambil keputusan dengan lebih baik lagi di waktu mendatang. Proses pembelajaran dari keputusan ini berkaitan dengan kegiatan coaching. Dalam coaching kita diberikan banyak pertanyaan reflektif, diminta menggali ke dalam dan menemukan pembelajaran yang bermakna. 

Salah satu keputusan yang susah diambil adalah pada kasus dilema etika. Pada kasus dilema etika ada nilai yang sama-sama benar yang sedang diperjuangkan. Sehingga, pengambilan keputusan dilema etika tentunya tidak mudah. Tidak ada rumus tertentu karena semua tergantung pada konteks dan kondisinya. Namun, apabila seseorang mengenal emosinya dan emosi orang lain, serta dampaknya pada orang lain (dalam hal ini disebut sebagai kecerdasan emosi sosial), maka tentunya dia lebih dapat berempati, namun juga tidak serta merta hanya dikendalikan oleh perasaan saja. 

Pada kasus dilema etika ataupun pada bujukan moral, keputusan bergantung pada nilai-nilai yang dipegang pemimpin. Apabila pemimpin memegang nilai integritas, maka dia pasti dengan jelas menolak untuk disuap. Kekuatan nilai-nilai kebajikan dalam pemimpin, menjadi penentu keputusan apa yang akan diambil pada kasus etika dan moral. Hal ini makin penting terutama bagi institusi pendidikan sebagai institusi moral dan etika.

Efek dari keputusan ada yang
kecil dan ada yang besar. Keputusan kecil mungkin hanya dirasakan orang-orang tertentu dan tidak langsung berdampak pada orang lain, namun dari keputusan itu, anggota komunitas dapat menilai moral dan nilai-nilai pemimpin. Dan apabila keputusan itu diambil pada prinsip yang benar, yaitu berpihak pada anak, sesuai nilai kebajikan universal, dan dapat dipertanggungjawabkan, tentunya anggota komunitas akan merasa aman, nyaman, sehingga ada dukungan dan lingkungan yang kondusif dan positif yang tercipta. Hal ini berlaku lebih besar lagi pada keputusan yang dampaknya dirasakan secara skala besar. 

Saat bicara tantangan, tantangan terbesar di sekolah kami bukanlah pada nilai-nilai, karena semua pemimpin di sekolah menjunjung dan menghidupi nilai kebajikan yang universal. Namun, tantangan menjadi ada karena setiap pihak memiliki paradigmanya sendiri. Ada yang paradigmanya keadilan, ada yang paradigmanya rasa peduli. Sehingga, sebagai pemimpin tantangan kita adalah menyeimbangkan semuanya dan mengambil keputusan yang dapat diterima dengan baik dengan seluruh anggota. Memang kita tidak bisa menyenangkan semua pihak, namun pemimpin wajib mengkomunikasikan keputusan sebijak mungkin terutama kepada pihak yang terdampak.

Sebagai pemimpin, agar dapat memaksimalkan potensi anak yang berbeda-beda, kita harus memahami prinsip equity dan equality dalam keadilan. Equality artinya memberikan perlakuan yang sama persis, tanpa memandang kebutuhannya. Sedangkan equity memandang setiap orang memiliki situasi, kondisi dan kebutuhannya sendiri, sehingga harus diberikan perlakuan yang sesuai dengan kekhususan itu. Untuk memerdekakan murid, kita harus belajar melihat situasi, kondisi dan kebutuhan murid, dalam pengambilan keputusan kita. 

Banyak keputusan yang dampaknya jangka panjang kepada anak-anak, baik dampak fisik, ekonomi, maupun sosial emosional. Contohnya memberi keputusan untuk anak tidak naik kelas, akan memberkan dampak pada kondisi emosi dan sosial anak, sehingga membuat anak tidak percaya diri, dan akhirnya mempengaruhi masa depan anak tersebut. Oleh karena itu sebagai pemimpin, kita bukan hanya mempertimbangkan apa yang menjadi aturan, tetapi apa dampak jangka panjang pada orang-orang yang terlibat.

Guru selalu mengambil keputusan setiap saat. Mulai dari keputusan memberikan materi pelajaran, memberikan konsekuensi, sampai keputusan kenaikan kelas. Dari modul 1 saya belajar bahwa filosofi pendidikan menjadi dasar dan nilai dalam kita mengambil keputusan yang terkait dengan anak. Di modul 2 ketika kita mengimplementasikan KSE, kita mengajar dan mencontohkan empati. Dalam melakukan diferensiasi kita juga mengambil keputusan memberikan kepada anak perlakuan yang adil dalam artian sesuai dengan kondisi, situasi dan kebutuhan anak. 

Secara pribadi saya merasa sangat diperlengkapi setelah mempelajari modul ini. Ada banyak keputusan dengan banyak pertimbangan yang telah saya ambil, namun saya baru tahu bahwa ada paradigma dan prinsip ini di dalamnya. Dari materi empat paradigma, saya belajar bahwa dalam satu kasus ada banyak paradigma yang bisa terjadi, tergantung kita melihat dari pihak yang mana. Dalam materi tiga prinsip pengambilan keputusan, hal yang baru bagi saya adalah tidak ada yang terbaik diantara ketiganya, bahkan care-based thinking pun tidak selalu pendekatan yang paling tepat, semua kembali lagi pada kondisi unik masing-masing kasusnya.. Dalam sembilan langkah pemgambilan keputusan, hal yang baru bagi saya adalah pengujian benar-salah atas keputusan kita

Tentunya saya pernah mengambil keputusan pada kasus dilema etika. Namun pada saat itu, saya tidak tahu bahwa ada empat paradigma dan tiga prinsip pengambilan keputusan seperti yang dipelajari di mosul ini. Saya juga tidak melakukan uji benar-salah seperti di sembilan langkah pengambilan keputusan. 

Setelah saya belajar mengenai pengambilan keputusan di modul ini, tentunya saya menjadi lebih peka tentang paradigma yang saya pakai, dan juga paradigma orang-orang yang terlibat. Hal ini membuat saya lebih dapat memahami mereka. Saya juga akan melakuan sembilan langkah pengambilan keputusan, dimana saya akan merefleksikan sebenarnya nilai apa yang bertentangan, siapa yang terlibat, dan bagaimana uji benar-salahnya. Perangkat ini tentunya sangat membantu saya mengambil keputusan terutama dalam kasus dilema etika.

Belajar mengenai pengambilan keputusan sangatlah penting terutama bagi pemimpin. Sebagai pemimpin  institusi pendidikan, kita juga adalah institusi moral. Yang kedua, karena keputusan pemimpin memberikan pengaruh terhadap anggota teamnya, mempengaruhi lingkungan kerja, bahkan pada titik tertentu dapat juga mempengaruhi masa depan anak. Oleh karena itu penting bagi pemimpin dapat mengambil keputusan terbaik di dalam kasus bujukan moral dan juga kasus yang dilematis.

Why Is It Important to Know Our Students pt.2 - Social Emotional

Continuing from the last post about students' development, now let's talk about Social-Emotional Development. I think most of us already know Erick Erickson theory, which divides our life into several stages. In this posting, I will discuss only school ages, which is stage 2-5.

Psychosocial Stage 2 - Autonomy vs. Shame and Doubt (18 mo – 3 yrs)
Psychosocial Conflict: Autonomy versus shame and doubt
Major Question: "Can I do things myself or am I reliant on the help of others?"
Basic Virtue: Will
Important Event(s): Toilet training

Focused on children developing a greater sense of personal control. They are starting to perform basic actions on their own and making simple decisions about what they prefer. 

Psychosocial Stage 3 - Initiative vs. Guilt (3-5 yrs)

Psychosocial Conflict: Initiative versus Guilt

Major Question: “Am I good or bad?”

Basic Virtue: Purpose

Important Event(s): Exploration, Play

Takes place during the preschool years. At this point in psychosocial development, children begin to assert their power and control over the world through directing play and other social interactions.

Classroom Practice : 

1. Allow children to make choices and act upon those choices: Provide a portion of the day when children can choose their own activities. Have a classroom library where children can pick their own books during reading time. This allows children the opportunity to learn how to make decisions for themselves.
2. Break instruction and activities down into small steps. This makes it easier for children to succeed and encourages them to take risks. 
3. Ensure that any competitive games or activities have well-balanced teams. If children consistently lose at math games, they may believe they are bad at math.
4. Accept mistakes that result from students attempting activities on their own. If a student damages something or makes a serious error, show him how to fix, clean or redo it instead of simply punishing him. This will make students feel more confident in their abilities to attempt activities on their own.

Psychosocial Stage 4 - Industry vs. Inferiority (6-17 yrs)

Psychosocial Conflict: Industry versus Inferiority

Major Question: "How can I be good?"

Basic Virtue: Competence

Important Event(s): School

Classroom Practice : 

1. Allow students the opportunity to set realistic goals. Have them create academic and personal goals for each quarter and revisit those goals every few weeks to monitor their own progress. Break down each assignment into parts so the students can learn how to set time management goals. 
2. Assign jobs to the students. Let them stack chairs, feed class pets, hand out and collect papers, take attendance sheets to the office and so on. Rotate these jobs regularly so all students have a chance to participate. This will give the students a sense of accomplishment.
3. Teach children study skills. Explain how to budget time and keep notebooks, binders and folders organized. 
4. Provide regular feedback to students, particularly those who seem discouraged. Praise them for what they are doing right and give constructive criticism of what they are doing wrong. If your school has a program such as Student of the Month, choose students who have academic or behavioral issues but are making strong efforts at improvement as well as high achievers. \

Psychosocial Stage 5 - Identity vs. Confusion (12-18 yrs)

Psychosocial Conflict: Identity Versus Confusion

Major Question: "Who am I?"

Basic Virtue: Fidelity

Important Event(s): Social Relationships

Classroom Practice :

1. Provide a variety of positive role models for students. Provide models of exemplary work so students know what an excellent project looks like and can compare their own work to the model. This will show them how to incorporate academic success into their identities, essentially providing role models for their work instead of their career goals.
2. Provide opportunities for students to bring their own interests into projects and assessments, as they may feel these interests are vital parts of their identities. Allow students to choose between a variety of final projects -- skits, essays, art projects, music compositions, etc. -- so they can either choose a project that appeals to their interests or explore new aspects of their identities.
3. Criticize behaviors rather than making personal condemnations of the students themselves. 
4. Explain the long-term consequences of misbehavior or poor performance so students will know how it affects themselves and others. This may encourage them to adopt a more responsible identity.
5. Encourage and support student interests. Attend school plays, concerts, and games to affirm students' identities as actors, musicians, and athletes.

I know it is not easy, and it is hard to remember all these theoretical things, but let us try our best to always remember that our kids are still in growing mode, so let us see from the way students see, talk in the way they talk and teach in the way they learn. 

Why Is It Important to Know Our Students pt.1 - Cognitive Development

Yes, It's June! In Indonesia, we start new academic year every July. This academic year was started by an induction training for new teachers, by me. This year, I covered Developmental Stages topic. This topic focus on students characteristics and the implications to classroom practice.

Let me ask you this : Why it's so important to understand our students?

Sometime..or many times.. we often forget that education is about teaching AND LEARNING. We often spend time, crafting a lesson that is fun and interactive to be taught, yet spend less time in getting to know and understand our students. Like me, I've been so focus on 21st century methods, until I forgot whether I teach in the way they learn. #sorrykids

Our students are growing and developing, just like us. The way we nurture them from early childhood plays important role for their future. We discussed about the principles of growth and development, brain, cognitive, psychosocial and moral development.

Understanding students developmental stages help educator to see learning through students eyes. By learning it, our lesson will be more relevant and stimulate thinking. How well do you know your students?

According to Piaget, our students also develop in their cognition. Cognition is the function based on how a person processes and reasons information. It revolves around many factors, including problem-solving skills, memory retention, thinking skills and the perception of learned material.

After we discussed the characteristic of each stage, we came up with this results :

For Pre-Operational Stage (Kindergarten kids), the implication to classroom practices are : 

1. Prepare the environment
2. Constructivism : break down big/complex concept into smaller parts
3. Use concrete and multi-sensory props and visual aids 
4. Make instructions relatively short
5. Give children a great deal of physical practice (hands on)
6. Use familiar examples - build from existing knowledge 
7. Provide many opportunities to experience the world

For Concrete-Operational Stage (K2 - K6) 

1. Constructivism : break down big/complex concept into smaller parts
2. Use concrete props and visual aids
3. Use familiar examples
4. Promote collaboration
5. Give opportunities to classify and group objects and ideas on increasingly complex levels
6. Trigger HOT by presenting problems which require logical, analytical thinking to solve

For Formal Operational Stage (K7-K12 and up)

1. Give students an opportunity to explore many hypothetical questions
2. Encourage students to explain how they solve problems
3. Whenever possible, teach broad concepts, not just facts, using materials and ideas relevant to the students

Yes, our students are developing. You have to see that there is so much potential in each of them. Our job is to prepare the environment and stimulate them to grow their thinking skill. I will share more about developmental stages in other are, in my next post!

PS : if you want our workshop slides, I will happily share it with you, just drop a message thru email or tweeters.

Technology in The Classroom, WHY?

If you love to follow education conferences nowadays, almost all of them are emphasizing the use of technology in the class.. Well, include me!

These past two years, I learn a lot (specifically on Google for Education) about how to embed technology in the classroom. I personally feel that technology bring a lot of benefits.

Before we going deeper, we have to start by the purpose. Most teachers and schools are incorporating technology because it's the latest trend (yes, it is). Many schools go SMART because it becomes an urgent matter for the sake of competition. If you start by that purpose, it's ok but then you have to have bigger purpose.

First, before you want to make the class better, or students feel the benefit. Very first thing, you have to feel the benefit by yourself as a teacher. Without this, you will only found that technology is just another workload. As a teacher, a lot of our time consumed by scoring and finding resources. By using technology, scoring can be done easier and faster - for example Google Form and Google Classroom can help you organize your classroom works. Finding resources and community can also easily done by the help of technology. Using productivity app like KEEP, TASK, CALENDAR, will surely make your work as teacher more effective and efficient. 

Second, once you feel the benefit for yourself, now think on how technology can improve your classroom practice. With technology, we can increase students engagement, make lessons more relevant and fit with students needs, give students more interactive teaching materials, and so on. Using platform like Kahoot!, Class Dojo, Padlet can help you to improve students engagement. Platform like Khan Academy, TED, will enrich you with gazillion material. I can't mention it all, but there are hundreds (maybe even thousand) apps that can help us to provide better and higher quality of learning experience.

Third, the purpose of incorporating technology in the class is also for students to master future skill. As you know, many jobs and profession now are replaced by system. Future job or profession requires ability to operate and even create systems It requires higher thinking skill, creativity, and people skill or collaboration. Yes, we are preparing them for something that we even can't imagine.

I can continue the list, but I think these are top three reasons that you need to buy in. Of course, in reality not everything work like what we planed. There are challenges too.. You need to make sure your teachers and students are ready to be responsible gadget users Learn about digital citizenship first. Apply those skill in your 'online' life, and bring it to your students.

Since, our future world will be dominated by technology, so it's important and urgent to bring digital citizenship into our school curriculum. Think about it!

Happy Teach-Teching!

The Place of Technology In Education

If Education is preparing students for their future, 

than our classroom must be as dynamic as the World 

Education suppose to be the most dynamic field in the world. However, in reality - at least in my reality - it's the slowest field that change. Most teachers still teach the same things, with the same methods, and even same assessment. While the world is changing, our class is standing still.

How about you, teacher? What is the most different (upgraded) thing that you see in your class now compare to your class when you were a student? 

So, before we see the place of technology in education, before we debate about the pros and cons, it's better to define "What is education to you?" and "What is the purpose of Education?" With this definition and purpose statement, you can see clearly where is technology takes part in education.

For me, education is process of teaching and learning that equipping heart, head and hands. It means education is about knowledge (head), how to apply knowledge and make it becomes skill (hand), and how knowledge and skill make the world better (heart). 

So, in my definition, technology is never the end goal. Technology is only a tool, yet technology is a tool that students SHOULD master (in the level HEAD and HAND), and govern (in the level of HEART), for a better world. 

Technology won't replace education, because there are many aspects of education that only can be done by human touch. Yes... Technology will never replace teacher, HOWEVER, teachers who use technology will probably replace teachers who do not. 

Incorporating technology in right way will leverage your teaching-learning process to different level. Consider our students characteristics, most of them are digital native. While the whole world expose them with technology, don't you think school should be the first place to educate them formally in term of technology. 

When Is it Right For a Teacher to Lecture?

Source

I have two distinct memories in my childhood of being “lectured” by an adult. The first was my girlfriend’s mother, after I disobeyed her curfew as a teen. I knew better, but I tested the boundaries by returning her daughter after our date 10 minutes after the curfew. I had a great time on the date, but the lecture afterward was not fun.

The other was a course I took in college. My professor was a brilliant man, full of accurate information that would be on the exam the following month. It was a science class, however, that I would not have enrolled in if it wasn’t required. To be blunt, it was an extremely boring class, week after week.

These kinds of experiences have caused the term “lecture” to fall into ill repute.


Are Lectures Bad?
The data on project-based learning and experiential learning is clear. Students not only prefer to learn via experiences vs. a lecture, but their learning actually increases with this kind of pedagogy. According to The Chronicle of Higher Education, “A 2014 meta-analysis of 228 studies of lectures and active-learning strategies showed that the results were decidedly one-sided in favor of active learning. So much so that the authors found it ethically questionable to make students attend lecture-based courses, given all that we know about how ineffective they are. “If the studies had been medical experiments, they probably would have been stopped for benefit—meaning that enrolling patients in the control condition might be discontinued because the treatment being tested was clearly more beneficial.”

The solution to education, however, is not that simple.

When teachers use “active learning” styles, things become messy and vague. If the student does, indeed, understand the lesson, it takes longer and often teachers or parents remain unsure if the objective has been met. Josh Eyler, director of Rice University’s teaching center, wrote last year, “It can create the illusion that the answers to teaching challenges are both monolithic and easily developed.’ Active learning, he noted, has become ‘an easy thing to prescribe as a cure but difficult to put into practice because it covers such a vast array of possibilities.”

What’s more, experiential or active learning takes time and is emotionally tougher. A November essay in The Chronicle of Higher Education argued that, “Active learning and other ‘high-impact practices’ in the classroom require so much extra work from an instructor that they can lead to faculty burnout. Whereas before, it seems, it was enough for professors just to know their subject, now it’s all a lot more complicated.”

So Where Do Lectures Fit into Our Leadership?
While I am a fan of experiential learning, I do believe there is a right time for teachers, parents, coaches and employers of young people to offer the proverbial “lecture.”

The right time to offer information is when the students actually have a question.

I believe our first job is to create a “question” in the minds of our students. If we are answering questions that no one is asking it will surely fall on deaf ears. Even if we’re absolutely correct in our information, it will not get through. Students learn on a need to know basis—so we must create the need to know.

Consider this analogy.

Suppose a friend from out of town calls you for directions to your house. They need your address. My guess is, you won’t jump into the Socratic Method to make this friend discover your address on their own. They’re already on the journey and they need help. Information is most helpful when the need arises, and the question is asked. This is what we must create in the minds of our learners.

Three Phases to Get to Your Lecture
1. Begin with a scenario that is intriguing and relevant.
Teachers or parents must begin by making an issue feel interesting and relevant. If our topic feels like unrelated theories—well, good luck with that. Generation Z is far too pragmatic for this. We must tie our lesson plan or topic to something they care about.

2. Offer the objective but let them see they need more information to reach it.

Next, clarify a learning objective, but don’t share everything up front. Start with a great topic but create ambiguity before offering clarity. The goal should be clear, but the insight or tools to reach it should come as they recognize their need for it.

3. Play the role of a consultant by providing information as they request it.

These first two steps position you perfectly as a consultant. A consultant comes alongside a client and consults. They enable that client to reach a goal by providing insight or resources as needed. When they “lecture” it’s because the client asks for it.

Cultivate questions in the minds of your learners before ever sharing the answer. Create the dilemma, stimulate disequilibrium, and only when there’s tension should you offer some guidance. Problem first. Principle second.

So go ahead and give a lecture—but make sure it’s time for one.

What to Do In Your First Year

OK.. so you are new.. Welcome to the Club (I initially want to use 'welcome to the jungle' term, then I think, if I use this term, then the students are the animals, it sounds rude! )

I wrote this post in my 8th years as a teacher. So read and pay attention well, Junior!

If this year is your first year, then I want to say CONGRATULATION, you chose the greatest profession in the world. It has the highest EMOTIONAL salary (lol.. hope you were not disappointed).

Since this year is your first year, then I recommend you to think thoroughly over this year, whether you see this as a JOB or as a CALLING. I told you this because if you see this as a job, then being a teacher is a very tiring and demanding job. But I really hope and pray, that you eventually find this as a calling, so you can truly bless by this bliss.

Now, the real checklist :

1. Prepare your brain, coz you will need to remember a lot of names.. a lot.. and sometimes even parents names. It is good to ask previous teachers for students' photos, ahead of class.  You also need to remember a lot of rules, routines, procedures, bla.. bla.. and blaaaa...
2. Check on your class.. Clean and neat class bring excitement in learning.
3. Find a mentor. Someone with bright smile and enough experiences. Someone with positive attitudes and words - If you found someone who like to complain, STAY AWAY! they are toxic. 
4. Set the TONE! Repetition is the mother of learning. Decide what rules and routines that you want to build over the year. Be clear and consistent about it to your kids.
5. Smile! Give your best impression on students' first day. You don't want they run and tell their dad that they don't want to go to school. 
6. Be WARM and COOL enough. Your goal IS NOT to be liked by the students, but to educate them. It needs someone who warm enough to start relation, and cool enough to be respected.
7. Ask.. -I don't know why in my country people are rarely ask - Stop assume that you know. It's OK to ask, you are new anyway.
8. Subscribe to my blog :p You will get a lot of good information regarding education. Subscribe and follow education blog, channel, Instagram, or Pinterest. They will give you bunch of ideas.
9. PRAY... you are not handling a machine, you are handling people, so you need God to help you with this...
10. Enjoy the day. Learning is a journey, and you also just start your learning journey as a teacher

A professional once a beginner, so it's really OK if you feel you don't know a lot. The most important  thing is you have LOVE for kids, and it's enough to make you a MERAKI teacher. 

Welcome!