Students not merely 'empty bottles'<\/p>\n
Simon Marcus Gower, St. Laurensia School, Serpong, Tangerang, Banten<\/p>\n
In the words of a somewhat exasperated Indonesian education
\nprofessional, \"In Indonesia people still think that the children
\nare empty bottles and that we, as educators, must just pour the
\nknowledge in.\" He had experienced international education
\n(principally American) methods.<\/p>\n
Sadly, it does seem that school students are still being
\nwidely viewed disparagingly as \"empty bottles\". Walk into any
\ntypical Indonesian school and you are likely to witness students
\nsitting passively and teachers mundanely 'filling them up'.<\/p>\n
The danger of viewing students as empty bottles is two-fold.
\nFirst, of course, it is patronizing, if not dismissively
\noffensive, towards the person. All students (all the people and
\ndeveloping personalities) within a school or classroom are being
\nviewed erroneously as a homogeneous entity.<\/p>\n
A collective entity of which it is said 'this is the measure
\nof the bottle' -- no more or less, nothing different or unusual
\nin shape, size, make-up and so on. It is then an highly
\nsimplistic approach and definition that is irresponsive to
\nsubtleties of difference -- such as different learning speeds,
\nstyles, various levels of academic ability or the most obvious of
\nhuman differences that inevitably exist in each and every class
\n-- people\/ personality differences.<\/p>\n
Secondly, the 'bottle effect' is also to prescribe, and likely
\nto preclude, the scope of learning. By supposing that the school
\nchild is an 'empty bottle' it is implied that the educator,
\nteacher or curriculum designer can determine precisely how much
\nthe 'bottle' can or should contain.<\/p>\n
It has an immediate limiting effect that is misplaced in the
\ncontext of education for opening up opportunities and thinking
\nskills for children. For education to be successful it must show
\nand act upon a knowledge of the students -- responding to and
\nassisting in meeting learning needs.<\/p>\n
Ralph Waldo Emerson once wrote \"what school, college or
\nlecture bring to men depends on what men bring to carry it home
\nin.\" Where Indonesian educators presuppose that they know the
\nmeasure of the 'bottle' in which education will be 'carried home
\nin', a dangerous assumption is being made. One that inevitably
\nlimits rather than frees, challenges and extends learning.<\/p>\n
Probably the greatest danger facing Indonesian education is
\nthe limitation rather than increase of thinking skills. Too often
\nit seems that the mode of education adopted here and the
\nmentality of educators is limiting and thus counterproductive in
\nthe pursuit of creating autonomous learners that are able to
\nthink and create for themselves.<\/p>\n
This kind of educational philosophy or state of mind literally
\ninsists upon passivity of the students rather than encouraging
\nthem to be the central and most active participants in education.<\/p>\n
Consistently examples occur in which students are attempting
\nto break free from the shackles of a quite oppressive -- even
\ndictatorial attitude. In so doing students are trying to perform
\nas active and autonomous learners.<\/p>\n
Take the recent example of a thoughtful, attentive and
\nconscientious student who upon having heard her teacher state
\nsomething that she felt was contrary to what she had previously
\nlearnt, raised her hand and questioned the teacher about the
\napparent contradiction.<\/p>\n
What was the teacher's reaction to this classroom
\ncontribution? Was it interested and grateful that a student could
\nbe seen to be listening? Was it appreciative of the fact that
\nevidently someone was thinking about what was being presented?
\nSadly -- no -- quite the contrary -- the teacher's response was
\nirksome and even petulant and definitely not encouraging of
\nfurther contributions.<\/p>\n
Immediately this active student was told that she was wrong
\nand that the teacher's definition was right -- and more
\nemphatically -- the right answer. The student politely pointed
\nout that the whole class had learnt something rather different
\npreviously and even the most passive of students were giving
\nslight nods of their heads to signify this. With much petulance
\nthe teacher was then heard to state that the previous learning
\nwas wrong; there was no further need for discussion and that the
\ninquisitive student would have to accompany the teacher at the
\nend of the class so that she could see the exact textbook answer.<\/p>\n
In this example the teacher had shown quite extreme obstinacy
\nand indeed to such an extreme that it left the teacher looking
\nignorant, not the student. For as it turned out the teacher was
\nnot providing a definition but merely an interpretation and thus
\nthe student was entirely right to thoughtfully point out that the
\nwhole class had previously learnt of something different. Another
\ninterpretation that was evidently outside of the teacher's
\nthinking or experience.<\/p>\n
This is, then, an example of the unfortunate rigidity and
\nintransigence that may be seen to exist in Indonesian education.
\nOften a quite myopic adherence to a belief in 'black and white'
\nanswers prevents real thinking and learning. A simplistic and
\nrather naive belief in cold definitions in 'black and white' --
\ndefinitely right or wrong answers stilts real thought and
\nlearning. To truly learn and to think with originality and
\ncreativity students need to be shown the great range of colors
\nand shades that exist in the kaleidoscope of the world and of
\nlife.<\/p>\n
This is education to enrich and empower people to contribute
\nto society. Education should not be so far removed from society
\nthat it merely exists as a means of measuring students'
\nperformance and hoping and expecting that they will conform to
\nand attain preset and prescribed performance levels. Students
\nshould be equipped with a greater understanding and appreciation
\nof the world that provides them with a richness of quality and a
\npower to advance society.<\/p>\n
It is evident that Indonesian education has at times been
\nallowed to become less than relevant and disconnected from the
\nneeds of society and the modern world. Only recently the newly
\nelected rector of one of Indonesia's most renown education
\ninstitutes -- the Bandung Institute of Technology -- acknowledged
\nin his inauguration speech that institutes of education had
\nbecome \"ignorant about [their] own society\" and allowed
\nthemselves to be \"inaccessible\" to society.<\/p>\n
Educators throughout Indonesia need to be encouraged to be
\nmore 'accessible' and more open to the challenging and ever
\nchanging mission of education. Obstinacy, intransigence and
\nrigidity in education policies only lead to the creation and
\nsustenance of ignorance. Education cannot be thought of as a
\nclosed, finished book. It must be a book that continues to be
\nwritten and read ad infinitum.<\/p>",
"url": "https:\/\/jawawa.id\/newsitem\/students-not-merely-empty-bottles-1447893297",
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"sponsor": "Okusi Associates",
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