Pupils struggle with govt-issued schoolbooks
Pupils struggle with govt-issued schoolbooks
By Ahyani
High school students have a hard time understanding their poorly
written textbooks. Romlah Suhadi, a lecturer at Universitas
Nasional Jakarta recently conducted a survey of the problem. The
following is a summary of her findings.
BANDUNG (JP): Indonesian students have difficulty
understanding the textbooks issued by the government because the
books tend to present the subject matter in a confusing way.
Moreover the language is often tedious, making the contents even
harder to read.
That is one conclusion Romlah Suhadi reaches in her study of
the use of Indonesian in textbooks issued by the Ministry of
Education and Culture. Romlah's findings are contained in the
Analysis of the language used in high school package books from
the aspect of readability presented at her doctorate examination
at Padjadjaran University in Bandung early last month.
Romlah sampled two textbooks: Energy of Waves and Magnetic
Fields from the exact sciences and Indonesian National History
from the social sciences. The survey covered 12 high schools in
Bandung.
To validate the research, Romlah used statistical as well as
significant methods to find synergy in the test results.
"I used both the qualitative and quantitative methods. The
quantitative data were obtained from the survey score, while the
qualitative data were derived from the comments and suggestions
by the test participants," she told The Jakarta Post at her home.
Romlah divided the respondent schools into two groups. Group A
consisted of schools which showed a higher score of readability
than the median value. Group B had a lower score.
Romlah also found that the readability score of the exact
science book for Group A was between 65 and 68.02 percent, an
average of 66.17 percent -- a high score according to her.
Group B only reached between 42.38 and 51.94 percent, with an
average readability of 48.22 percent. A medium category, Romlah
said.
For the history book Group B's average readability was between
38.00 and 48.22 percent.
"I think it is because the history book uses flowery language,
making it difficult to understand, while the physics book uses
effective language in explaining logical phenomena," she said.
Apart from testing the effectiveness of the books with
students, Romlah also endeavored to observe what influence the
books had on the teachers. The teachers also had problems with
the books and were compelled to use textbooks published by
private publishers to complement their classes.
Her study of the effective use of language covered the
standard use of the language, its effectiveness, its scientific
aspects, and the redundancy found in the two books. The latter
hampers the students' understanding of the material.
Romlah proposed that the production of textbook packages
should involve subject experts, language experts and book
designers.
As important, is that all textbook packages be checked for
readability before being distributed "in order that the use of
the books is effective."
"If weaknesses are detected during the checking, corrections
can be made. The books should not be distributed before their
evaluation," Romlah concluded.