Adelia Anjani Putri, Jakarta – A seemingly simple mathematical problem has multiplied in proportion over the past few days, becoming a topic of hot debate in mass and social media alike: At issue is whether 4W6 is the same as 6W4.
Top scholars such as Yohanes Surya have weighed in alongside ordinary netizens on the computational conundrum that has evoked a variety of views from mathematical and linguistic reasoning – as well as opinions about the quality of Indonesia's pedagogical professionals.
The controversy first emerged from a Facebook post, purportedly by the mother of a second-grade student, that showed extensive corrections on her child's homework because the student wrote the terms being multiplied interchangeably – as is permitted by multiplication operator's associative property.
It's no secret that Indonesia's curriculum – and teaching methods – privilege formalism at the expense of proper reasoning and personal development. Indonesian pedagogy often relies on prescriptive, formulaic approaches to problem solving – often emphasizing trivial parts of the process rather than the underlying logic for generating the right answers.
As a result, kids are taught to memorize rather than understand the reasoning that motivates the material they study.
Mohammad Abduhzen, executive director of Paramadina University, blames the whole educational system. "The government made the system to work like that, including the national exams. The teachers are only the operators," Abduhzen said on Wednesday.
"The existing system makes the teacher work as if it's only a formal task, not an act of dedication and responsibility to educate the nation."
The low quality of Indonesia's pedagogy is also one of the main reasons why the country hasn't been able to improve its education level. "The system, then, contributes to lowering the teacher quality. The quality is so low on almost every competency aspect," Abduhzen said.
Retno Listyarti, secretary general of the Federation of Indonesian Teachers Associations, agreed. "The quality of teachers is still low, as seen from all assessments done previously," she said.
"In 2012 the World Bank took videos of teachers teaching in 12 Asian countries [to asses the quality of the teachers' pedagogical skills]. Indonesia ended up at the bottom."
Even the government's own assessments show the shortcomings of the nation's teachers. "The latest teacher competency test by the Education Ministry showed that the average score was only 4.3, while the test requires at least 7.0 to pass," Retno said. "Handling the problem requires government intervention; we can't only demand changes from teachers," she said.
The Education Ministry has taken first steps by providing free teacher certification tests throughout the country. The certification is voluntary, motivated by the presumption that teachers will want to be recognized as "qualified teachers." Teachers who fail to demonstrate their competency on the test are encouraged to study and retake the exam the following year.
Critics say the certification exam has not measurably improved teachers' pedagogical skills. "They tried to improve professionalism by setting this certification that has cost billions of rupiah. The results show that it has no implication toward teachers' performance and quality, and thus no improvement in the teaching process nor the students' achievement. It's all reported on the World Bank reports in 2009, 2010 and 2011," Abduhzen said.
"The certification might've improved the teachers' welfare, but surely not their quality," Retno adds. "What we need is training."
Reorganizing teaching schools and giving teachers recurrent professional training are what will be necessary for teachers to break the cycle of ignorance, Retno said. "The government should revamp the teaching schools. Those schools have been producing bad teachers," she said.
"And many currently practicing teachers never received any training. The FSGI conducted a survey in 29 cities and districts on elementary school teachers, and 62 percent have never received any training at all, even up to their retirement."
One teacher that the FSGI interviewed, according to Retno, was 57 years old and claimed she only had been trained once, back in 1980. That is a sad state of affairs, especially compared with Singapore, whose teachers have to undergo at least 100 hours of training per year.
"We need a systemic change. Give training to teachers continuously, not just when there's a new curriculum to introduce." Abduhzen added that such training, if done, should cover how to plan lessons and teach more effectively, using evidence-based techniques.
"[Fixing] teaching methods and approacheds are much more important than changing the curriculum. Methods are directly related to the teachers; improving the method means improving the teachers and the quality of students' education as well. That's why it's a big task that needs elaborate planning," he said.
Source: http://www.thejakartaglobe.com/news/math-problem-multiplies-debate-pedagogy/