NGANJUK: 'Cooperative Learning' Learning Empowers Students

When they first start to practice PAKEM some teachers get the impression that group work consists of students sitting in group discussing the solutions to problems. However, they fail to fully understand how to organize the discussion processes. As a result, most teachers complain during teachers working group (KKG) meetings that the children are noisy and badly behaved during group work. They find difficulties in class organization and student control.

In the end they get the impression that group work in PAKEM is just a nuisance and that it is difficult to control the students. They think there is something wrong with PAKEM. However, after recently receiving PAKEM 2 training about cooperative learning, I now have a better understanding. Evidently group work is not the same thing as cooperative learning. It depends on the learning processes that take place in the group.

So far we've often found that during group work one or two students are working on the task in hand, normally the cleverest in the group. The other children in the group do something else and tend to be disruptive by being silly, chatting or playing about.

They do this and fail to make any contribution to the task they been given to do. The less able children tend to be passive (just watching what is going on) because their friends think that they are unable to make a contribution to the group task. Cooperative learning is different from this kind of group work.

Cooperative learning teaches children to work together in a team, to take responsibility, give and receive leadership and value others people's opinions (to be democratic). Why is this? Because each member of the group has a task to do (which matches their capacity) and can make a contribution to achieving the objectives of the group. In order to achieve this, the teacher must be creative in making interesting and challenging lesson scenarios, which empower and involve each member of the group.

There are many alternative ways of giving tasks and arranging group work so that all the students work enthusiastically and are active in their contribution to the group. Here is one example. The group of students is divided into pairs or individuals who then form a task group and an expert group.

The members of the group of experts have to discuss and solve problems together with expert members of the other groups. Then they return to their original group to discuss the solution they have reached. During these activities each student must be active taking notes and be responsible for doing their part in completing the their group's task.

The achievement of the targets by each group is dependent on the work of all the students and the result of their discussions with the expert team. With a model like this the activities of the students are more purposeful because each student in the group is given a different role. As a result the members of the group are dependent on each other and work together to make their contribution to the group. There are lots of models of cooperative learning which can be developed by teachers and facilitators.

The effect of cooperative learning is seen not only in the impact on the students' cognitive development. It also impacts on their be-havior. Students are trained to value the opinions of their friends. Domination of the group by self-centered or 'clever' students decreases, while students of average ability are more valued, since they are able to make a contribution to the group according to their ability. As a result, the contribution of every member of the group, however small, is valued, not only that of the cleverest students.

By Dra Saidah Mardiana, Primary School Science Facilitator, Nganjuk

KEBUMEN: Students at SDN 1 Ambalresmi learn about Communications Technology at the Telephone Office

One of the basic competencies which has to be learned in Social Studies in grade 4 is the ability to understand the development of communications technology. In order to achieve this competency, it is possible for teachers to design lessons in which students gain direct experience. Some time ago the grade 4 students at SDN 1 Ambalresmi, Ambal sub-district, Kebumen were invited to visit the telephone office.

The teacher asked the person in charge of the office to become a resource person and explain to the students how to make telephone calls. This was done so that children could get information directly at first hand. After that, each of the students tried making a telephone call. The teacher had already contacted a telehone owner and asked them to be prepared to receive the students' telephone calls.

After the students had made telephone calls, they returned to class and discussed the activities they had just taken part in at the telephone office. They also discussed the etiquette of making telephone calls, the development of communications technology and the benefits and limits of telephone communications.

After that they wrote about their activities using their own words. As a follow-up to the lesson and in order to discover if they had achieved the com-petency, the students were given the task of phoning the teacher in the afternoon or on the next day. In this way the teacher was able to monitor how far the students had mastered the competency.

This activity may seem boring to children living in towns who are used to communicating by telephone. But for children living in villages who have little access to modern communications, these activities are interesting.

For children living in villages like those at SDN 1 Ambalresmi the experience of making a telephone call is a valuable one. By the way, these activities were paid for using school operational funding (BOS). Maybe this is one small example of contextual earning.

By S. Handayani, Social Studies Facilitator in Kebumen