My Believe, My Faith

           As a child and as a person who grow up in a country which is record as the country with the biggest Muslim population in this world. I accustomed to answer a question “What is your religion?” Because in my country, specifically in my home town, Sukabumi, most of people believe in God and even they may have different religion and belief and also possess different ritual in praying.  They share one common thing believe in the existence of God. Moreover another common thing is the fact that most of people also try their best to respect others belief and religion through never questioning other religion and belief.  I am getting used to this condition. I stay in my safe zone where nobody ever questioning my religion and belief.

I never thought someone would question me about my belief and religion through asking question like: “Do you believe in God?” “How you believe in God?” “What kind of God do you believe in?” and “How you capture the present of God?”  Because I used to think that my answer to question “What is your religion?” will enough to explain all the things.

That is why Humanistic Study course shocked me to the core. Because in Humanistic Study course questions like that were threw right to my direction. I felt so uncomfortable at first, I couldn’t understand why those typically question should be stated.  I thought those questions already have obvious answers which are sometime it hard to be conveyed in words because I simply just feel it. At first I also felt so angry when I heard those questions because I thought those questions could corrupt my faith.

            Lucky for me because later I met a person who tell me that those questions wouldn’t corrupt my faith if I really worth my faith.  That actually those questions are intended to stimulate my critical thinking, so I could leave my safe zone and it prevents me to become a narrow minded person, who believes in something just because most of people also believe in it or just because other people told her/him so.   In this essay I will answer those questions.

My faith and my believe

            I do believe in God presence in this world because I never believe at any coincidental things.  I believe that something always happen on purpose although sometime it seems like accident. I believe in God existence even more after I read and learned about Charles Darwin evolution theory which states that every living creature in this world is derive from one origin, single cell which transforms into more complex creature.

Darwin’s evolution theory denies creator theory. It says that the first single cell occurs accidentally because of chemical reaction. However even now with advance scientific tools the biology prominent never success creates any living creature.  So for me it doesn’t make any sense that the single cell occurs accidentally. Something really big and great must be there to create all living creatures in this world.

Those facts strengthen my faith about God existence.  I believe in The One God. In The One God who isn’t a woman or a man. In The One God who doesn’t have any child.  In The One God who is a substance with different characteristic compare to human‘s characteristic. I believe in The One God who has 99 names which describe God characteristic as the most almighty substance in this world.

Expressing my faith

      People could have different ways in expressing their faith and so do I. For me to expressing my faith I try my best to pray every day and do the best things. People may call me as stuck in the ritual stage. However the truth is I do believe that in every single things of my ‘ritual’ there is a meaning. Like example I always try to do sholat five times in each day. People may call my activity as bored and all. However I do believe that through sholat I can get something, like from spiritual side sholat always remind me about the presence of The One God and from hygiene side sholat never fail to always keep my cleanness.

      Personally I don’t agree with theory or people who say that what I do is useless or mere a ritual. It is because for me what I do is a way to express my love and obedient as a God servant. It is because if people always demand sacrifice from his/her lover to prove his/her true love. Then why not people also express their love for The One God through fulfill their duty as God servant.

Feeling the presence of God

            Some people often ague about how to feel the presence of God. They keep arguing because God presence is invisible for them. In my opinion God presence may seem abstract and invisible because they try to see God presence with their bare eyes not their heart. Because I do believe that God is always be there, close to the people. The thing is whether people want to acknowledge God presence or not. It is because only people who see though their heart could feel God presence. 

Classroom Assessment: Clear the Misunderstanding

 Seventh Reflective Journal for PETA Course 

            Finally I started to learn about assessment in PETA course. I have waited for this topic since the first meeting. The reason I really want to learn about this topic is to extend my understanding on classroom assessment because I ever learned classroom assessment briefly in Educational Psychology before. Some things were rather confusing for me about assessment before. Luckily for me after attended PETA last session on 29^th November 2011 all of my confusion is vanished.

            Here I want to share some important points about classroom assessment:

1.      1. Assessment ≠ Test 

Many people (including me before I knew the truth) think that assessment and test is a synonym. They think that both terms are interchangeable. However the truth is test and assessment is different. It is because assessment is an effort from teacher to collect data or information about student and this attempt is sustainable. Meanwhile test is an attempt to evaluate student understanding or progress on certain learning material. So to sum up, assessment is bigger than test and test is part of assessment.

2.      2. Domain of Classroom Assessment

Another misconception about classroom assessment is an assumption which states classroom assessment is all about assessed student’s cognitive. It is because most of schools use paper and pencil test to assess student in learning process. However that assumption is wrong. It is because assessment is not only meant to assess students’ cognitive but also student’s affective and psychomotor.

3   3. Type of  Classroom Assessments

There are two types of classroom assessment. First is formative assessment and second is summative assessment. For further explanation formative assessment is could be simply define as ongoing assessment like daily test or quizzes. Whereas summative assessment is an assessment which is covered all the learning material in certain period of time. For example is midterm and final test in university and national examination in primary school and secondary school. 

4.      4.How Assessment Support Learning Process

Assessment is one important aspect in learning process. It is because assessment can be a good medium of reflection for us as teacher. So we can know how effective our instruction is.  Another important thing to remember is feedback is really needed in the learning process because sometime there is a gap between instruction and assessment and only feedback which could be the bridge for its.

That all some important points about classroom assessment that we as teacher or teacher candidate should know. Based on those points I realize that my concept on assessment before I study in SSE was wrong. Beforehand I always thought that assessment is related with test or quizzes which never fail make me stress out.  It is because at the time my teachers never told me about their method to assess students. So I jumped to the conclusion that assessment is midterm, final test and quizzes and I thought that once I fail in one of those tests I will fail the entire course.

      In SSE I feel better because in every course the lectures give student the rubric of assessment which explains about all things that being assessed. So student will know what they have to do. In the future I think will copy my lectures in SSE way with giving a rubric of assessment for my course to my student. So they will know about what I expect from them.

Filsafat Sebagai Pengukuh Kehidupan Beragama

          Manusia pada dasarnya adalah mahluk yang dipenuhi rasa ingin tahu pada setiap hal yang ada. Manusia senantiasa bertanya- tanya tentang berbagai hal yang ada di sekelilingnya. Mengapa ini bisa terjadi? Kenapa harus terjadi? Bisakah bila tidak terjadi? Pertanyaan- pertanyaan bernada seperti itu selalu muncul disetiap harinya. Hal itu amatlah wajar mengingat Tuhan Yang Maha Esa memang menganugerahkan akal pikiran pada manusia. Sehingga manusia mampu berpikir kritis sekaligus dapat mengolah data di sekelilingnya untuk menemukan jawaban yang bisa diterima oleh nalar.

Karena itu tidak heran jika ilmu yang pertama kali ditemukan di dunia adalah ilmu filsafat, ilmu yang didasari oleh rasa ingin tahu manusia terhadap rahasia kehidupan dalam berbagai aspek. Filsafat adalah induk dari semua cabang ilmu yang sekarang kita kenal sayangnya ilmu filsafat juga adalah ilmu yang sering kali berbenturan dengan hal lain yang juga menjadi kebutuhan dasar manusia yakni agama. Sejarah mencatat bahwa sejak berabad- abad lalu benturan antara  kaum filsuf dan kaum religius banyak terjadi karena perbedaan prinsip.

Perbedaan Mendasar Antara Filsafat dan Agama

            Perbedaan pertama antara filsafat dan agama adalah sumbernya. Karena filsafat terlahir dari sifat keingintahuan manusia yang sangat besar. Sedangkan agama adalah ilmu yang bagi kebanyakan orang dianggap sebagai ilmu yang diturunkan langsung dari Tuhan kepada umat manusia melalui orang- orang suci seperti nabi. Perbedaan agama dan filsafat lainnya adalah cangkupan agama lebih luas jika dibandingkan filsafat. Karena  selain dikenal sebagai ilmu, agama juga merupakan sebuah prinsip hidup.

            Hal itu disebabkan oleh kenyataan bahwa manusia adalah mahluk spiritual disamping mahluk yang berakal, sehingga membuat posisi agama menjadi sangat istimewa  bagi sebagian besar manusia. Sehingga  seringkali agama dijadikan acuan untuk menjawab keheranan manusia pada fenomena yang terjadi seperti kesengsaraan. Selain itu agamapun menjadi acuan atau parameter bagi kehidupan manusia sehari- hari. Singkatnya agama selain sebagai sebuah ilmu juga menjadi pedoma bagi manusia dalam menjalani kehidupan, sehingga manusia senantiasa terlingkupi perasaan aman.

Pertentangan Antara Filsuf dan Kaum Religius

            Keberadaan agama yang menjadi  pedoma utama bagi kebanyakan manusia seperti kaum religius mengundang kritik dari kaum filsuf yang mengangap bahwa agama telah mengkorupsi anugrah akal pikiran yang dimiliki manusia. Sebab agama sering kali hanya diubah menjadi alat penyampai doktrin- doktrin pada khalayak umum. Bahwa citra agama tak jarang dikaitkan sebagai pembawa kebenaran mutlak yang tidak dapat digali lebih lanjut atau dikritisi. Hal yang terakhir ini jelas sangat bertentangan dengan prinsip filsafat yang selalu bertanya- tanya tentang semua hal.

            Di sisi lain keberadaan kaum filsuf yang kelihatannya selalu meragukan segala sesuatunya (termasuk agama) juga membuat kaum religius merasa tak nyaman. Karena kaum filsuf tak jarang meragukan ajaran agama dan mengkritisi ritual atau ajaran agama. Kaum filsuf juga tak jarang mempertanyakan pertanyaan- pertanyaan ‘menyentil’ seperti “Kenapa manusia perlu beragama?” “Apakah kesengsaraan terjadi karena kehendak Tuhan?” Dan masih banyak lagi pertanyaan- pertanyaan senada seperti itu. Sehingga beberapa pihak dari kaum religius garis keras kemudian melayangkan tuduhan bahwa para filsuf tengah mencoba mengerogoti agama.

Filsafat Sebagai Pengukuh Kehidupan Beragama

            Sejarah pernah mencatat bahwa pertentangan antara kaum filsuf dan religius pernah menelan korban nyawa. Beberapa filsuf di abad pertengahan dan Reinanse seperti Boethius (525) tercatat berakhir hidupnya di tiang gantungan karena dianggap menentang ajaran agama oleh pihak gereja. Sebagian lagi menjadi korban masyarakat karena keberadaannya ditolak, seperti Kierkegaard yang diberi label sebagai orang yang murtad dan berbahaya.

            Seharusnya  kejadian seperti itu tidak usah terulang lagi. Karena pada dasarnya filsafat  yang merupakan ilmu yanf mencari kebenaran dari seluruh kenyataan (Fickte,1814) bukanlah sebuah ancaman bagi agama, begitu pula sebaliknya agama bukanlah ancaman yang dapat  melumpuhkan akal manusia. Karena pada dasarnya Tuhan Yang Maha Esa menganugerahkan akal pikiran pada manusia bukan tanpa tujuan. Contohnya dalam Islam, Allah SWT menyuruh manusia untuk selalu berpikir sesuai dengan  surat Al- Nahl ayat 12 yaitu “Dan Ia memudahkan bagi kamu malam dan siang, dan matahari serta bulan; dan bintang-bintang dimudahkan dengan perintah-Nya untuk keperluan-keperluan kamu. Sesungguhnya yang demikian itu mengandung tanda-tanda (yang membuktikan kebijaksanaan Allah) bagi kaum yang mau menggunakan akal.” Yang perlu kita garis bawahi disini adalah Allah meminta manusia untuk selalu menggunakan akalnya (berpikir)

            Karena itu menurut pendapat penulis, agama bukanlah sebuah doktrin berbahaya. Sebaliknya agama adalah sebuah hadiah dari Tuhan Yang Maha Esa bagi umat manusia. Agama adalah sebuah alat bantu bagi manusia untuk memahami fenomena yang ada disekelilingnya. Agama juga tidak sama seperti peraturan sekolah yang hanya berisi sejumlah larangan. Agama adalah campuran antara pengetahuan dan seni yang indah.

Dan untuk memahaminya (yang biasanya dilakukan melalui menelaah kitab suci) tidak boleh dengan cara  langsung menterjemahkan secara literal. Memahami agama memerlukan pemikiran dan penafsiran, dengan kata lain untuk memahami agama kita perlu berfilsafat terlebih dahulu agar kita dapat  mendapatkan pengertian yang lebih dalam. Karena itu seharusnya pertentangan antara filsafat dan agama tidak harus terjadi.

            Biarkahlah kaum filsuf mengekplorasi berbagai hal yang menggelitik mereka, biarkan kaum filsuf mengembangakan rasa ingin tahu mereka seperti anak kecil yang selalu mau tahu. Tugas bagi kaum religius nantinya adalah menjadi rekan seperjuangan kaum filsuf untuk saling mengingatkan dan bertukar pikiran. Karena rasa ingin tahu tidak akan mematikan imam seseorang. Sebaliknya rasa ingin tahu akan membuat manusia makin percaya  pada keberadaan Tuhan Yang Maha Esa. Sebab kebenaran sejati akan tetap menjadi sebuah kebenaran sejati meski kita jungkir balikan.          

Referensi:

Sumedi, P & Mustakim., Pengertian filsafat., diambil dari http://akhmadsudrajat.wordpress.com/2008/02/08/pengertian-filsafat/ pada November 28, 2011 09:20

Educational Design to Meet Learner‘s Need

Sixth Reflective Journal for PETA Course

23th November 2011 was another first meeting with PETA course after two weeks of midterm. That day our schedule was covering all the materials which hadn’t studied before. That why Ms Ine divided the class into five groups because there were five topics to be covered. There were differentiate model, cooperative learning, effective teacher and effective teaching, developing lesson plan and last is learning style and multiple intelligences. I was in the fifth group and got learning style and multiple intelligences topic. So in this reflection I will talk about learning style and multiple intelligences.

            According to discussion result in my group, we assume that learning style and multiple intelligences are theories which learned about human differences in educational context. Though these two theories teachers are expected to design an appropriate educational model/ instruction which meet learner needs.  To highlight learning style and multiple intelligences have different point of view to classified learners. I will talk about both of its one by one.

            First is learning style theories. Just like the name learning style theories classify learners into four groups based on learner’s learning styles. They are:

1.      The mastery style learner

This type of learner has tendency to absorb information concretely. So this learner like to process information sequentially step by step and put more focus on clarity.

2.      The understanding style learner

This type of learner is stress on how to understand an idea and an abstraction. They like questioning, reasoning, testing and evaluating an idea based on their logic and the contextual event.

3.      The self-expressive style learner

This type of learner are using more emotion and feeling in learning process. This learner is really good in expressing new idea and modifying/developing the existing idea. This learner also value and judge learning process with parameter originality, aesthetics and delight.

4.      The interpersonal style learner

This type of learner is similar with the mastery style learner but the difference is this type of learner prefers to learn in group rather that individually.

            Another thing to be noticed from this model is the statement that learning styles are not fixed throughout life. It could be shift from one type into another type. My concern is I still confuse whether someone’s learning style actually related or depend on the subject of the lesson. Does it possible if one person is a mastery style learner when she/he learns science then he/she becomes the self expressive style learner when he/she learns art?

            The second theory is multiple intelligences theory which is purposed by Howard Gardner. He classified learners into seven group based on their intelligences. They are linguistics intelligence, logical-mathematical intelligence, spatial intelligence, musical intelligence, bodily- kinesthetic intelligence, interpersonal intelligence and intrapersonal intelligence.

            Until now Gardner theory is popular. However there are two weakness of multiple intelligence theory. First this theory based on cognitive science. Second this theory focus on content of learning and does not consider individual process of learning. It cause some question like: Are the bodily kinesthetic intelligence between a football player and dancer different or the same? Are the musical intelligence between a singer and a composer different or the same?

            Actually those questions could be answered by integrating learning style and multiple intelligences theories. Because with the integration we will know that singer and composer have the same musical intelligence with different learning style.

            However to me it is still vague about the exact number of multiple intelligences. It is because some books say there are eight types of multiple intelligence, in other hand other books say there are nine types of multiple intelligence and my article (for group discussion) say it only seven types of multiple intelligence. Another thing which makes me confused is about the cognitive science. I am wondering about why one of the weaknesses of multiple intelligences is because it based on cognitive science. Is cognitive science hasn’t recognized yet in scientific world? That my entire reflective journal for now.

           

The Meeting after School Experience Program

Fifth Reflective Journal for PETA Course

After two weeks did school experience finally I went back to my regular activity which include go back to my academic activity, doing assignments and attending all the courses. Tuesday 1 November 2011 was first meeting with PETA course again. That day we did three kinds of activity.

 The first activity was experience sharing, in that session Miss Ine divided the class into four groups. I was in the first group which consists of seven members. We shared our experience to each other. That was so much fun and meaningful activity because beside I heard funny and interesting stories I also could learn many things from my friend’s experience. For example I learned about behavioral issues like student who are hard to handle and mentor teacher who is not quite friendly. Not only listen to the stories and laughed whenever funny events occur from the stories there were also lesson learn like how to overcome the obstacles in learning and teaching process.

Actually all of my friend’s stories lead me to reflect on my own experience because in the school experiences, I met a student who was hard to handle and I think he was quite childish for a senior high school student.  He keep do some activity to draw teacher’s attention and he just wouldn’t do the given assignment if the teacher didn’t accompany him. Until now I still couldn’t figure out how to deal with those types of student. I am wonder whether we as teacher should give those types of student special attention or not. I am afraid if give them special attention will elicit negative reaction from other students like envious.

After sharing experience the second activity was did group discussion on four types of model instruction and did gallery walk. Because my group was the first group we discuss about direct instruction model. When working in group our lecturer gave each member of the group different position like facilitator, recorder, illustrator, material manager and encourager. Each position had different job and responsibility. I think everyone was did the job really well. However actually I quite confuse with the encourager’s job description because in my opinion the encourager’s work is only as a ‘cheerleader’. I wonder if an encourager is really needed or not for a small group work.

 The third or the last activity was did reflective journal in the end of the class. Miss Ine gave us a paper and we were expected to write down our understanding about all models of instruction on it. Personally I think our last activity was good because through the journal I as a student could check my understanding on the lesson and the lecturer also could know about student’s level of understanding. In the future I think I will ask my students to write reflective journal too because it effective to check student’s level of understanding and could stimulate student’s high order thinking skill.

New Exciting Experience

Reflective Paper for School Experience 

After did school experience for four days I learned so much things in each day. In the first day I observed the class I found that my mentor teacher didn’t do the all the things which written in lesson plan. I think that because the students were really active they keep commenting on anything and make fun of each other. Based on my observation the teacher just ignored the “chaos sources”. If only I were him I would acknowledge them and give them more responsibility like appoint them to become the class assistants.

            In the second day observing, I noticed that the teacher using a power point to support his class but the content in his power point presentation was really similar with the one in the student handbook.

In the third day I observed my mentor teacher’s listening class. The thing I noted was he used a popular song for listening practice. I concerned if there were students who already memorized the lyric.

            Meanwhile in the fourth day I and my partner, Martan were given chance to teach. We have prepared the lesson plan, the teaching aids and practiced the day before. But too bad, because of the limited of time we couldn’t lead all the activity completely.

Last from this new experience I noted two things. First I should learn more about classroom management and second I shouldn’t use an up to date and popular song for listening session.