'Active learning method' to be reviewed: Minister

JAKARTA (JP): The 15-year-old "active learning method" is being evaluated amid doubts of its ineffectiveness, due to problems in changing old teaching and learning ways.

"Do not hesitate in expanding the active learning method across the country if the method is really found effective," said Minister of Education and Culture Wardiman Djojonegoro yesterday.

"But if evaluations find the method ineffective, we must have the courage to end its development study, to seek another, more effective approach."

Wardiman was opening a one-day symposium evaluating the "active learning method" from 1980 to 1994 at the ministry, involving around 100 educational experts.

The method was first introduced in 1980 in response to concerns among educators that traditional methods, in which students passively listen to teachers lecturing, cannot foster creative, critical students. It is conducted in cooperation with the British Council.

The method was introduced in selected schools, where teachers are encouraged to try various teaching methods with a wider range of materials. Students are grouped according to learning levels and are encouraged to be more active.

The project has been considered a success in a number of elementary schools in Jakarta and Cianjur. However, there have been reports of the concept being misunderstood in other schools.

Djauzak Ahmad, the director of elementary education, revealed that many teachers thought that "active learning" only meant students sitting huddled together in groups instead of the customary row of seats facing the teacher.

"Even in first grades where students learn to read and write, students were found sitting in groups but with their backs towards the blackboard."

This, Djauzak said, caused them to twist their necks and shoulders to see the blackboard, "which can lead to a defect of the backbone."

The lack of professionalism among teachers, he said, is the main constraint in the active learning methods which require teachers to be more creative in their teaching methods.

He said many teachers felt compelled to use the method and rigidly adhered to it even when they could adopt other methods.

"One impression (among teachers) was that it was considered almost sinful to use the lecturing method in teaching."

This, he said, reflects the anxiety among teachers caused by the high demand of the active learning method.

The head of the ministry's research and development department, Sri Hardjoko Wirjomartono, said the method must be adjusted to specific conditions. "It is impossible to implement it with 60 students in one classroom," he said. (anr)