REFLEKSI TERHADAP KEHIDUPAN UMAT KAITAN DENGAN PENDIDIKAN

Adalah suatu hal yang sangat istimewa apabila setiap individu ingin melakukan refleksi atas setiap hal yang dihadapi, dilihat, didengar, maupun yang dialami. Kemampuan berefleksi dibutuhkan oleh setiap orang dan seharusnya anak yang berstatus sebagai pebelajar perlu dilatihkan bagaimana melakukan refleksi.
Proses refleksi akan membantu kita melihat keberhasilan kita, kekuatan kita, dan melihat kelemahan apa yang perlu diperbaiki, bahkan merencanakan atau merumuskan tindakan-tindakan perbaikan. Dalam proses refleksi, kita harus berani mengajukan sejumlah pertanyaan dan berlapang dada mencari jawaban atas pertanyaan tersebut. Pertanyaan tersebut antara lain: (1) Mengapa saya mau sekolah di UNESA, atau di Australia dan hasil apa yang selama ini saya raih? Perubahan positif apa yang telah terjadi pada diri saya dalam seminggu ini atau bahkan dalam sejam ini, dan perubahan negatif apa? Mengapa kondisi Indonesia semakin rapuh? Sejauh mana peran saya dalam membangun umat ini? Hal apa yang perlu saya lakukan kaitannya dengan status saya sebagai pelajar?, dan masih banyak lagi pertanyaan yang sangat penting untuk dicermati.
Refleksi dengan pendekatan ilahi mungkin akan berimplikasi pada eksistensi bibir kita yang selalu dihiasi oleh dzikir, beristigfar dan menyatakan secara secara jujur tak ada daya dan kekuatan yang saya miliki kecuali dari Engkau Ya Allah dan akibat lainnya adalah kita akan selalu merasa ada ketergantuangan pada Yang Maha Berkuasa dan dapat menjaga diri kita dari sikap yang sangat dilaknat oleh Allah, yaitu sikap sombong.

Berbagai Fenomena yang Menyedihkan
Marilah kita sejenak membicarakan beberapa fenomena yang mungkin cukup menyesakkan dada tanpa harus menunjuk siapa yang harus bertanggung jawab atas fenomena tersebut.
Berkaitan dengan kondisi ekonomi Indonesia yang sangat memburuk, meskipun kita bukan ahli ekonom atau pengamat profesional terhadap perekonomian, tetapi sebagai masyarakat awam kita dapat merasakan dampak krisis ekonomi yang tak kunjung berakhir. Apakah semua penduduk di Indonesia merasakannya? Persoalannya adalah tidak semua, bahkan sebagian penduduk Indonesia “notabene semakin menikmatinya”. Istilah yang tepat adalah jurang pemisah antara sikaya dan simiskin terlalu jauh.
Apakah mungkin karena sumber daya alam kita terbatas? Tidak. Wilayah hutan tropis Indonesia terluas ketiga di dunia dengan cadangan minyak, gas alam, emas, tembaga, dan mineral lainnya. Kepulauan Indonesia yang terdiri dari 17.000 pulau kaya dengan Flora dan fauna. Indonesia memiliki kawasan hutan hujan tropis yang terbesar di Asia-Pasifik, yaitu diperkirakan 1.148.400 kilometer persegi. Hutan Indonesia termasuk yang paling kaya keanekaragaman hayati di dunia, hutan yang paling kaya akan species palm (447, 225 diantaranya tidak ditemukan di bagian dunia yang lain), terkaya dengan mamalia, ketiga terkaya di dunia dengan reptil, keempat terkaya dengan burung, dan lain-lain.
Potensi alam Indonesia sangat besar, tetapi mengapa negara kita miskin? Ada apa di balik pengelolaan sumber daya alam Indonesia. Mengapa dengan potensi yang amat besar itu, negara Indonesia justru semakin terlilit utang luarnegeri yang telah menenggelamkan bangsa Indonesia dalam krisis multidimensional yang berkepanjangan. Bisa dipastikan adalah karena ulah tangan-tangan yang tidak bertanggung jawab, yang hanya memikirkan kenikmatan sesaat dan tidak peduli dengan akibat yang ditanggung oleh orang lain. Tidak dapat ditutupi bahwa berbagai persoalan krusial ini terjadi akibat tidak diterapkan aturan yang benar dan tidak tegaknya aturan main yang benar.

Apa yang Mungkin Salah dalam Pendidikan Kita?
Sebagaimana yang telah saya kemukakan dalam suatu Forum Dialog Muslimah bahwa meskipun tidak ada Sekolah atau Universitas Tiran dan tidak ditemui adanya Institut Konglomerat, tapi toh nyatanya kita punya persediaan tiran yang tidak pernah habis dan stok juragan besar yang berlimpah ruah, itu pun belum terhitung para asisten tiran dan asisten juragan. Kita tidak pernah melihat sekolah dengan kurikulum yang mengajar siswa mencuri, membuat kerusuhan atau kekacauan, tetapi mengapa kita selalu membaca di koran atau mendengar di radio, bahkan menonton tayangan TV tentang berbagai macam kejahatan yang dilakukan oleh anak muda, antara lain perkelahian massal antar pelajar, permintaan aborsi dari kaum pemudi, dan merebaknya wabah ectasy. Dan yang lebih fatal lagi karena anak muda yang melakoninya konon adalah “produk pendidikan”.

Effective Teacher Professional Development

According to Borko (2004), professional development should be seen as a tool for renewing teachers’ knowledge. This demand has increasingly become a significant issue, particularly when calls for teaching reform require different standards from traditional approaches to teaching. Teachers need to learn new instructional strategies, new mathematical content, and new technology to support teaching and learning in new times.

Characteristics of effective professional development

Considerable resources have been spent on providing a wide range of opportunities for teachers’ learning (Borko, 2004). However, many teacher professional development programs have been criticised as ‘intellectually superficial’ and ‘woefully inadequate’ (Borko, 2004, p. 3). Several limitations of professional development are: it tends to be in the format of short-term workshops; it does little to enhance content and pedagogical-content knowledge; there is no follow-up; and it typically fails to match the local needs of teachers’ classroom situations (Ball & Cohen, 1999; Borko, 2004; Little, 1993; Putnam & Borko, 1997; Sykes, 1996; Wilson & Berne, 1999; Wiske, Sick & Wirsig, 2001).

In the literature, characteristics of effective professional programs have been described (e.g. Abdal-Haqq, 1995; Little, 1993; Putnam & Borko 1997; Wilson & Berne, 1999). Through analysis of such literature, the five features of effective professional development can be identified, as follows.
· It is on-going;
· It is collaborative and aims to promote and connect participants in learning communities;
· It is student-oriented, focusing on student-centred approaches to teaching;
· It takes into consideration the individual teacher and his/her context; and
· its prime focus is on enhancing pedagogical content knowledge for teaching.

Each of these features is elaborated below.
In describing the need for professional development to be on-going, Abdal-Haqq (1995) stated that it also must include opportunities for training, practice and feedback, and provide time for the individual to reflect upon practice. Further, Little (1993) stated that professional development must be conducted often enough and long enough to ensure gains in knowledge, skills and confidence. The importance of professional development being an on-going process, has also been emphasised by many other educators (e.g. Franke, Carpenter, Levi, & Fennema, 2001; Newell, Wilsman, Langenfeld, & McIntosh, 2002; Wiske, Sick, & Wirsig, 2001).

In describing the nature of professional development to enable teachers to build networks, Abdal-Haqq (1995) stated that professional development must provide teachers with opportunities to interact with peers, whilst Wilson & Berne (1999) described the importance of providing teachers with opportunities to talk about the subject matter, about students’ learning, and about teaching. Little (1993) also outlined the need for teachers to talk, stating that this ensures collaboration, which leads to shared ideas, shared investment, thoughtful development and a fair and rigorous testing of selected ideas.

In describing of the importance of professional development being student oriented, Abdal Haqq (1995) highlighted that effective professional development should focus on students’ learning.
The fourth characteristic of effective professional development relates to taking into consideration the individual teacher and his/her context. Putnam and Borko (1997) and Abdal Haqq (1995) argued that teachers should be treated as active learners who construct their own understanding as they are adult learners. Teachers should also be treated as professionals (Abdal Haqq, 1995; Putnam and Borko, 1997). Further, Putnam and Borko (1997) emphasised the importance of treating teachers as teachers expect to treat students. Putnam and Borko (1997) and Abdal Haqq (1995) agree that professional development must take into consideration the school/classroom context of teachers.




The last characteristic identified in these different bodies of literature, are that professional development should enhance pedagogical knowledge. Abdal Haqq (1995) and Little (1988) stated that professional development is rooted in the knowledge base for teaching, and that professional development should focus on crucial problems of curriculum and instruction.

Teaching as a transmission process vs teaching for a constructive process

Teaching as a transmission process
A teacher who believes that information can be transmitted to students’ heads often employs lecture methods in the teaching of mathematics. These teachers usually stand up in front of the class, writing formulas on the board, and providing several examples for practising the formula. Teachers then give students many exercises for practice and expect students to memorize the formula (Boaler, 1996; Wedde, Breuer & Hüvelmeyer, 2003).
Yet several studies have described the detrimental effects of this approach for students (e.g. Glazer, 2001; Boaler, 1996). Because of a tendency for teachers to expect students to memorise a lot of facts that may not necessarily make sense to them, and asking students to listen and practise many exercises in preparation for a test, many students come to the conclusion that mathematics is either about right or wrong, it is unrelated to real life, or it is only appropriate for smart students (Goos, 1999; Boaler, 1996).
Generally speaking, this transmission view is not relevant to new times. In an age of fast information, accessed via the Internet, teachers are no longer the main sources of information. This means that, on the one hand, it is very possible that what teachers have planned to teach, some students have already understood better by accessing information themselves. On the other hand, what teachers might have prepared in a very well-structured form cannot guarantee that it will be easily understood by students, particularly those who do not have the pre-requisite knowledge.
Further, if transmission is a viable teaching approach, it means that the role of teachers might be replaced by technology in terms of being a transmitter which might offer very structured instruction. For example, a lot of drill and practice can be readily done through the Internet, and a lot of visualisations are available to explain particular concepts. However, technology on its own cannot change educational practices (Wiske, Sick, & Wirsig, 2001).

Teaching for a constructive process
The traditional view of teaching provides a limited view of teachers as transmitters of knowledge. In contrast, teachers as facilitators should help students to construct their own knowledge. As facilitators, teachers position students at the centre of activities, taking into account what students already know and what they expect to learn from teachers in classrooms. Such approaches are widely accepted as a means to reform the teaching and learning of mathematics (e.g. Boaler,1998; NCTM, 2000; Wood, Cobb & Yackel, 1991).
Student-centred approaches advocate that teachers position students as partners in the learning process, taking opportunities for when students can be informants or experts in certain sub topics. Although a seemingly simple approach to mathematics teaching, many research studies have shown that getting teachers to reform their teaching style is not an easy task (e.g. Boaler, 1998; Borko, 2004). To develop innovative teaching requires a huge amount of effort from teachers. Often, teachers, especially those who acknowledge the limitation of traditional mathematics teaching, have found it difficult even though they have a willingness to change (Borko, 2004).