SM3T and PPGT: Preparing Professional Teacher for Indonesia

By Nia Martiana, S.Pd

SM3T Teacher in Ende Regency 2nd cohort  

Semarang State University, Indonesia 

Shortage of teachers in rural areas has been one of a worldwide challenge faced by many countries. This issue occurs not only in developing countries such as Indonesia, India and Africans but also in developed countries such as Australia, Canada and United States. Moreover, Australian Educators have highlighted this shortage as a national crisis in the country (White, Green, Reid, Lock, Hasting, & Cooper, 2008 as cited by Hudson, 2010). Geographical condition and imbalance demographic distribution become the main factors in forming areas as rural. Furthermore, the vast area of a country also contributes in parting many rural areas. This condition makes teachers tend to prefer teaching in urban areas as they provide better access and professional opportunity.

                 Indonesia is a unique country. It has approximately 17.000 islands spread from west to east separated by oceans. The big fives are Sumatra, Borneo, Papua, Sulawesi and Java. The last is considered as the prominent land where Jakarta, the capital city is situated with the largest amount of population. The rest of the islands consist of small with lower density and even uninhabited. Therefore, the rural area with relatively small population and geographical challenge scattered throughout a wide country intensifies teacher shortages and some other problems.

According to Indonesian Ministry of Education, some problems faced by rural teaching are shortage of teachers, imbalance distribution, under qualification, low competencies and mismatched. The other problems are the relatively high number of school cut  off whereas the number of school participation is still low.

Nowadays, the concern of rural education has been brought to attention. Indonesian government with its Ministry of Education and some private institutions put this issue as an essential matter for Indonesian education. In order to solve this problems they promote some programs such as Maju Bersama (SM3T and PPGT) by the Ministry of Education as well as Indonesia Mengajar and the other similar programs hold by private institutions.

 However, putting teachers to teach in rural area is indeed another problem. Collins, as stated in Hudson (2008) noted that attracting teachers to rural schools has presented a challenge for education departments for years.  Most of teachers who have teaching experience in urban area are likely to deny teaching in rural ones. Social, cultural and professional isolation may be reasons for losing rural teachers. According to Watson & Hatton (1995) geographical isolation with strong cultural differences such as recent immigrants, indigenous people, or isolated rural dwellers may present issues for retaining teachers in rural school.

On the other hand, teaching in rural schools gives benefit as well. Research conducted by Ralph from Saskatchewan University (2003) summarized nine advantages of teaching in rural schools, (1) better acquaintance with students, (2) high community involvement, (3) support by staff and community, (4) better acquaintance with families, (5) opportunity to engage in variety of opportunity, (6) lower enrollments, (7) A “country side” pastoral setting, (8) fewer students discipline problems, (9) opportunity to secure a rural teaching position.

   As previously stated, Ministry of Education has promoted two programs in providing teachers for rural school through out Indonesia. These are PPGT (Integrated Teacher Education Program) for preparing teacher candidates from rural areas, and SM3T (Education Bachelor preservice teaching in rural areas). These programs are aimed to produce professional teachers. Since teaching in rural area is not free from any challenges, the SM3T teacher candidates should be equipped with sufficient preparation to cope with the challenges they probably would face during the duty in rural areas. Therefore, the candidates should take part in the precondition stage  before leaving.

SM3T is a preservice teaching program of Education Bachelor to participate in the accelerating education development in rural areas of Indonesia. Here, rural areas are defined as the left behind areas, frontier areas, and rural isolated area. The teachers should devote their selves for the schools and the societies in which they are placed. This stage is the initiating stage to prepare professional educators who will be brought to Teacher Profession Program (PPG) for the next following year.

According to the guide book of SM3T published by Directorate of Higher Education which is in charge in conducting SM3T program, the purposes of this program are:

1.      To help rural areas in solving the problems of education in terms of shortages of teachers.

2.  Giving the experience of devotion to education bachelors so that the professionalism, nationality, empathy, and creativity can be developed to solve education problems, and responsible to the development of the nation, as well as having tough spirit of survival.

3.       Preparing teacher candidates to be professional educators in rural schools of Indonesia.

4.      Preparing professional educators before joining Teacher Profession Program.

The Scope of SM3T

In the placement school, SM3T teachers are supposed to teach subjects they are asked by the headmasters. Since shortages of teachers are often faced by the schools, sometimes they are asked to teach double subjects or double grades. However, the scope of SM3T is not merely in the teaching duty. Extracurricular activities, school management and triggering teaching innovation are some points to be done by the teachers in the placement schools. Furthermore, SM3T teachers should conduct community service activities in purpose to encourage the societies in developing their environment.      

·         Preparing Teacher for Rural School

Collins, as stated in Hudson (2008), argues that candidates for rural teaching placements need to come with personal characteristics, rural background, or educational experiences that predispose them to live in rural areas. Hence, universities should be proactive by introducing rural education as part of preservice teacher preparation (Boylan, 2004; Collins, 1999; Roberts, 2005). Dealing with this matter, 12 chosen universities which are in charge of conducting SM3T should initially prepare the participants in precondition stage before leaving. 

In the precondition stage, the participants learn and equip themselves with educational material, such as how to develop good syllabi, lesson plans and materials of study in the context of rural schools. Simulation of dual grade teaching is also given here to provide sufficient preparation for the participants in coping with the condition there. Monk in Hudson (2008) emphasizes that rural schools need high quality teachers who understand rural areas, which necessitates contextualizing preservice teacher preparation, survival material is considered important to learn before leaving. Teachers in rural and remote schools can feel isolated and may require support through mentoring, modeling and counseling (US Department of Education, 1998). Dealing with this, precondition stage provides the participants to take part in survival activities mentored by Indonesian Army members, and some activities such as scouting and self counseling. 

The follow up after having a year service in rural area, SM3T teachers have the chance to join Professional Teacher Education Program at the universities in which they initially registered. It is a full scholarship program supported by Directorate of Higher Education in the purpose to equip teacher candidates with advance knowledge and experiences in becoming professional teachers. 

 References

Beutel, D., Adie, L., & Hudson, S. Promoting Rural and Remote Teacher Education in Australia through the Over the Hill Project. Queensland University of Technology, Australia.

Diah, Riza A. K & Pradna, P. 2012. Resiliensi Guru di Daerah Terpencil. Jurnal Psikologi Pendidikan dan Perkembangan. Vol I. No. 02.

Faridi, A. 2013. Method Used in Teaching English at Junior High School in Central Java. Arab World English Journal. June 2013. Pp 45-55

Guenther, J. & Weible, T. 1983. Preparing Teachers for Rural Schools. Rural Education, Volume I, Number 2, Winter.

Hudson, Peter. 2008. Changing Preservice Teachers’ Attitudes for Teaching in Rural Schools. Australian Journal of Teachers Education volume 33 issue 4 p.66-77.pdf

 Kline, J., White, S., & Lock, G. (2013). The rural practicum: Preparing a quality teacher workforce for rural and regional Australia Journal of Research in Rural Education, 28(3),1-13. Retrieved from http://jrre.psu.edu/articles/28-3.pdf

Ralph, Edwin G. 2003. Promoting Teaching in Rural School. 2003. Journal of Teaching & Learning, Vol 2 ., No. 2.
Buku Panduan Prakondisi SM3T 2012

SM3T dan SMP Negeri Detukeli, Sekolah di Negeri Awan-awan

Dulu ketika aku masih kecil, ingin rasanya bisa meniru tingkah polah Sun Go Ku yang bisa kemana-mana naik awan Kinton. Tinggal panggil langsung wuuuuuzzzzzzz...  Atau layaknya Sun Go Kong si Kera Sakti yang juga punya kendaraan serupa. Keinginan itu tentu saja jadi angan belaka seiring bertambahnya usia. Nyatanya bahkan ilmuan jaman sekarang belum bisa membuat kendaraan mirip awan sebagai solusi mengatasi kemacetan jalan raya (hehe, semoga pak Jokowi baca nih tulisan, hehe :p )

Namun siapa bisa menyangka, menginjak usia 23 tahun, keinginan itu terwujud bahkan lebih dari sekedar mengendarai awan. Aku mengajar di sebuah sekolah menengah pertama di sebuah negeri di awan-awan. hehehe... Looooohhh kok bisa????

Itu karena aku mengikuti program Sarjana Mendidik di daerah 3T (SM3T), sebuah program pengiriman guru ke daerah Terdepan, Terluar dan Tertinggal (3T) Indonesia. Sesuai dengan namanya, program ini merekrut para Sarjana Pendidikan untuk 'mengabdi' ( tapi dibayar, jadi aslinya istilah mengabdi kurang relevan kayaknya, hehehe...) selama satu tahun di daerah penempatan. Nah, untuk info lengkap mengenai program ini silakan klik di sini.

Well, bicara soal daerah penempatan, aku ditempatkan di Kabupaten Ende, NTT. Tepatnya di Kecamatan Detukeli, Desa Maurole Selatan. Di situlah terdapat SMP Negeri Detukeli, sekolah dimana aku mengajar. Bangunan sekolah ini bisa dikatakan cukup baru. Namun sayangnya, sekolah ini tidak memiliki instalasi listrik PLN. Sama halnya dengan sekolah-sekolah dan rumah warga di seluruh kecamatan Detukeli. Maklum saja, mengingat lokasi kecamatan ini yang cukup terpencil.

SMP Negeri Detukeli terletak di sebuah bukit yang dinamakan Jl. Ragho Riwu. Karena letaknya yang cukup tinggi, sekolah ini bahkan bisa terlihat dari kejauhan. Pemandangan yang disaksikan dari sekolah ini sangat indah, hamparan hijau hutan dan biru pegunungan berjajar dengan puncak Lepembusu menjulang. Pokoknya bagus banget deh...

Jika cuaca cerah, pertemuan birunya langit, laut dan jajaran pegunungan dengan dihiasi putihnya awan bisa terlihat. Bahkan, (boleh percaya boleh nggak... ) kita bisa merasa seperti dekaaaaatttt banget dengan awan. Sampai-sampai perkampungan yang letaknya berkilo-kilo meter juga terlihat dekat.








 Namun semua kecerahan itu akan berubah seketika ketika kabut datang menerjang. Lapangan sekolah yang tadinya terang berubah menjadi samar-samar gelap. Bheeeeeerrrr... hawa dingin menyeruak.







Apalagi saat musim hujan tiba. Seharian betul tidak ada cahaya matahari.









Gedung SMP sama sekali tidak terlihat dari cabang menuju sekolah. Semua tertutup awan kabut. Itulah puncaknya hingga aku sebut sebagai, negeri awan-awan.... semua yang terlihat hanyalah awan dan kabut...

  Anak-anak tetap berangkat sekolah walaupun tidak pakai alas kaki... bayangpuuuunnnn... kalau musim hujan jalannya becek pake bangeeet nget nget... bahkan cacingnya gede-gede..

Dari bukit belakang sekolah aku bisa melihat luasnya lautan dengan Gunung Rokatenda yang mengepul asapnya.








Itulah sekilas gambaran tentang SMP-ku, SMP Negeri Detukeli... Sekolah di negeri awan-awan...

Sepatu, Searahkah pada tujuan?

Kita tidak pernah tahu, kemana Tuhan akan menuntun kaki kita melangkah.

Entah dengan sepatu, dari highheel sampe terepes,
Entah dengan sandal, dari terompah, teplek, sampe wedges
atau bahkan dengan daging berbungkus kulit tanpa modifikasi apalagi mistis.

Kita tidak pernah tahu,
Apa saja yang akan kita injak
Entah bakiak, landak, minyak hingga meledak
Entah kotoran, lawan hingga kawan.
Awas

Kita tidak pernah tahu,
Tanah mana saja yang akan kita pijak
Entah Kelindota, Cassablanca hingga Antartika.
Bersiaplah

Kita tidak pernah tahu,

Namun memilih untuk tidak mau tahu untuk sesuatu yang seharusnya kita tahu walaupun tidak pernah kita tahu sejatinya
adalah pilihan

Dan bukit kecil dimana konon katanya moyang Ragho Riwu bersemayam
menjadi saksi dimana sepatu -yang kutolak pakai saat pertama kali melakukan apa yang seharusnya aku lakukan-
menemaniku menapaki jejak Bapak...

Ada banyak tempat untuk dituju, walaupun belum kita tahu..

Ada kompas yang memberimu tahu arah mata angin
Ah... angin itu... (terimakasih telah menghembuskannya, Pak..)
Semoga selalu mengibarkan Merah Putih di dalam sanubariku


Semarang, 23/02/2014 23:42

Conducting an Orchestra in Your Class through Cooperative Learning Structure

Teaching students in a classroom context is like conducting an orchestra. Teacher plays the role as the conductor who manages the class and the students play the role as the musicians who express their-selves to create a harmonious music composition. In a classroom context, both teacher and students should engage in the classroom. Everyone should take part. Teacher has the responsibility to provide joyful and safe learning environment in which every student can explore him/herself in the learning process. As an orchestra, students are supposed to study collaboratively. They should consider that they are not learning alone. They have peers in their class. Though individual work is absolutely counted, but how they collaborate and socialize with the other students should be taken into account. In addition, learning collaboratively enables students to be more encouraged to learn and helps to develop their self-esteem since it creates comfortable and secure atmosphere. Moreover, it can trigger classmates to support one another.

In a classroom context, one thing that I would like to maximize the positive impact of peers is by implementing cooperative learning structures. Cooperative Learning itself is described as a large group of instructional strategies in which students collaborate in order to reach a common goal. Kagan who is concerned with structures development in education since 1968, creates Kagan Structures that most designed to increase learner engagement and cooperation. Kagan and Kagan (2009) states that all of the Kagan Structures are very carefully designed. They are carefully structured to implement four basic principles of cooperative learning, PIES; P= Positive Interdependence; I=Individual Accountability; E=Equal Participation; S=Simultaneous Interaction. Kagan Cooperative Learning offers a chance to make students active and minimize the free rider and help all students socialize with the others. And not only that, it can be applied in all situation and all subjects. According to www.indiana.edu/~safeschl/cooperative_learning.pdf, the Cooperative Learning method helps students to use their cooperation and interdependence in completing their task so that they will reach the task, goal, and reward structures. In short, they will learn to do their task cooperatively in order to achieve their learning objectives.

There are many structures belong to Cooperative Learning that can be implemented in a classroom setting. Taken from www2.gsu.edu/~mstjrh/cooperative_learning_struct.htm they are: Rally Robin, Jigsaw, Numbered Heads Together, Showdown, Really Coach, One Stay Two Stray, Think Pair Share, Pairs Check, STAD (Student Teams-Achievement Division), Three Step Interview, Constructive Controversy, Roundtable/Circle of Knowledge, Talking Chips, Co-op Cards, Send a Problem, and etc. We can choose one of the structures that best suited to the material of learning and the interpersonal skill that we want to emphasize.

Doing Cooperative learning structure is not so complicated. Nevertheless, it needs preparation. First thing that teacher should take into account is the material and the suitable structures. The other thing is, teacher should give clear questioning and instruction to the students. Since in this structures students are supposed to work collaboratively, it is better to give questions which can stimulate students’ critical thinking so that every students has the chance to share their own ideas. Moreover, clear questioning and instruction is considered essential in conducting Cooperative Learning Structure. It will help students to understand clearly what to do and minimize group confusion.

I had experienced how clear questioning and instruction are really matter in Cooperative Learning Structure. The first time I tried to implement Numbered Heads Together Structure in my class, I did not give sufficient information about the structure. I just told the students to follow my instruction without giving brief explanation about what to do in advance. Therefore, students got confused and the class began chaotic. It was not effective. Learning from the first experience, I reflected on what had happened and started to give clear questioning and instruction.

Sometime, Cooperative Learning Structure needs students to move their seats to gather in groups. Therefore, teacher should make sure that the class arrangement is possible for the students to move their seat. It is better to give exact time for the students to move in order to minimize chaos.

In grouping the students, teacher sensitivity and comprehension of the class play important roles. The effective group composition consists balance and diverse from high, middle and low achieved or motivated students. This sort of grouping will enable to maximize the positive impacts of peers. High achieved students will help the middle and low achieved students. And in the end, the success of the group is the success of the whole members. And the success of the whole members is the success of the class. This is worth celebrated.

Celebrating students achievement can be done in various ways. In a classroom context, clapping hands can be the simplest way. Hug and cheers at the and of the class hopefully will make the learning more impressive even after the class ends up. At the end of my class, I always ask the students to clap their hands to celebrate the success of the learning process. 

*This article was officially published to fulfill Peer Assessment Project of  online course at https://www.coursera.org/  Foundation of Teaching and Learning 3, on December 2013

References:

www2.gsu.edu/~mstjrh/cooperative_learning_struct.htm 

www.indiana.edu/~safeschl/cooperative_learning.pdf,