PAKEM Subject Based Workshops

Part 1

During September and October, PAKEM training in Yogyakarta focused on subject areas and developed further our understandings of curriculum. All subject groups focused upon understanding the curriculum through practical activities such as curriculum scanning and the development of long, medium and short term plans.

The new curriculum: How do I teach it?

Many teachers become frustrated when trying to teach the new competency based curriculum. They look at each competency separately, try to develop a lesson about it and then try to evaluate it. There are too many competencies in the curriculum to teach in this way, and teachers become worried they will not be able to manage all the competencies which need to be taught.

The curriculum as a framework

The competency based curriculum is different to the old curriculum because it is a framework. Teachers must use the curriculum as the framework for their teaching programs. Just like an architect teachers must make a plan and build their house according to the plans. All parts of the house need to be considered in the plan and how each piece of building material fits with other pieces.

The curriculum scan

During the workshop, participants learnt a process for building the framework by completing a curriculum scan. Participants took one year level of the curriculum and cut up all the standard and basic competencies.

were placed at the top of the page. Basic competencies were placed under topics identified by the group which related to the competencies. The participants made many decisions about how they would organize their curriculum scans and each group produced a different plan.

At first they found the process difficult because they had to make a number of decisions related to topics and to organize basic and process competencies. When a teacher commented that the plans were different and asked which one was right and which one was wrong, we discussed that all were correct.

Teachers now can be flexible and make plans to suit the needs of their students and their school environments. Participants developed a 'big picture' view of planning from the competency based curriculum and successfully built the 'frames' for their programs Watch out for Part 2 of curriculum planning in the next Suara MBE.

FROM 'GREEN APPLE' - Suara MBE, Kota Batu Playing Dominoes to Learn about Fractions When we hear the word dominoes we automatically think of the dominoes which have dots from 1 - 6. Usually we play dominoes just for fun. But for Ibu Juliati, a teacher in grade 3 SD Songgokerto, Batu, has modified the dominoes to use them as teaching aides for learning fractions in grade 3. As a result Ibu Juliati has won first prize in the Science and Mathematics Teacher Creativity Competition at the East Java Level. Congratulations Ibu Juliati. For playing the game of dominoes Ibu Juliati modified the dots on the dominoes like this, here are some examples: There are three different games: For learning fractions that are equivalent. The students match up pictures with numbers, or numbers with numbers, or pictures with pictures that are the same or have the same value. For learning comparison of two fractions with different values, where one is a larger value, the students match up pictures with numbers, or numbers with numbers, or pictures with pictures where one of them has a larger value. For learning comparison of two fractions with different values, where one is a lower value, the students match up pictures with numbers, or numbers with numbers, or pictures with pictures where one of them has a lower value. By using these modified dominoes, the students in grade 3 have found it easier to understand the concept of fractions. The students also enjoyed it because they were learning by playing games.