Curriculum revision

The new learning strategy, according to Accelerated Learning for the 21st Century, will follow the mnemonic method created by Jayne Nicholl, author of Open Sesame. It comprises the following steps: motivating your mind, acquiring information, searching out the meaning, triggering memory, exhibiting what you know and reflecting on how you have learned (Rose & J. Nicholl, 1997).

To improve the education system in Indonesia, rigorous and drastic shifts have to be made with regard to the existing curriculum system. Apart from the allocation of the budget, teachers across the country should promptly realize that traditional methods of presenting materials to students should be in line with the on-going phenomena. That is, everything around us changes constantly.

It is true that the accumulated wisdom of all ages, from all parts of the world is our curriculum (William H. Schubert 1986: 14), but when the teaching strategy and the teachers themselves remain uninnovative and uncreative, the educational output might still be unchanged, thereby being outclassed by the education systems of neighboring countries like Singapore and Malaysia.

It is therefore high time educational authorities emphasized that teachers should keep in mind that learning is not just getting a good grade or simply taking down what teachers write on the blackboard, but is a lifelong adventure.

ODO FADLOELI

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