STUDENT'S PRODUCT

ANECDOT

By. Acep Lukmanulhakim

Class 8C

SMPN 2 GARUT

Abstrak :
Something embarrassing happened to me
Orientation :
Last Wednesday, all of students in 8c class were going to do sport in town square. At school, I changed my uniform to a sport cloth. After everything was ready. All of us went to town square. On the way to town square I spoke to my friend.
Crisis :
After arriving in town square. While walking, I bought some food and then I ate it. After I felt satisfied. I walked to right and left. Suddenly someone pull down my pant. It was Esa, my friend. Before it was happened, I felt suspicious to my friend. Finally, my felt it was come true.
Reaction :
I felt embarrassed for all of this, because I was looked by many people there. Fortunately, I could pull up my pant again, then I hit him while running and I kept my pant. So that not pulls down back. Then all of students were sport.
Coda :
I promised to my self to becarefull again to kept my pant. So It will never ever happen again.

Classroom Action Research

“Enhancing the Students’ Interest in Learning Listening

Through the English Songs at SMPN 4 Tarogong Kidul;

By: Kusnadi, S.Pd. M.Si.

This classroom action research was intended to improve the second year students’ interest at SMPN 4 Tarogong Kidul in the 2008/2009 Academic Year by applying the English songs in learning listening. The respondents of this classroom Action research (CAR) were class 8G that was determined purposively. The class 8G were chosen as the subjects of this research because the class had more complicated problem dealing with students’ interest in listening lesson. In the preliminary study of the research, it was found that none of them had high interest, 23 students (57,5%) had sufficient interest, 17 students (42,5%) had low interest, it was the lowest among five existing classes.

This CAR consisted of two cycles, in which each cycle covered four main stages including: the planning of the action, the implementation of the action, classroom observation. Main data was obtain from questionnaire. Meanwhile, the supporting data were gathered from interview and field notes.

The result of the questionnaire in the first cycle was found that most of respondents (3 students/7,5%) had high interest, 28 respondents (70%) had sufficient interest, 9 respondent (22,5%) had low interest. This result did not achieved the target this research, that was the percentage of low interest category maximally 10%. Besides, based on the classroom observation that was done in the first cycle, it was found that the students’ involvement in the process of listening activities was 75%. Therefore, the actions were proceeded to the second cycle by revising the first action cycle such as: optimalizing the students’ participation in the process of listening activities, giving enough vocabularies and some information related to the lyric of the song and choose other attractive English songs. The results of the questionnaire in the second cycle was better, 8 students (20%) had high interest category, 29 students (72,5%) had sufficient interest category, and only 3 students (7,5%) had low interest category. Besides, the students’ involvement in the listening process improved from 75% in the first cycle up to 87.5% in the second cycle. It means that both the students’ listening test and the students’ involvement in the listening process improved in the second cycle and fulfilled the target of this research.

Based on the results, it could be concluded that the use of English songs could improve the 8th year students’ interest in learning listening at SMPN 4 Tarogong Kidul in the 2008/2009 Academic Year in two cycles. Then it is suggested to the English teacher to apply the English songs as the alternative way of English teaching material, especially in teaching listening. This is expected the students become enjoy in doing teaching and learning listening activities.

International Standard School

International standard schools: Some insights
Setiono Sugiharto, Contributor, Jakarta | Sun, 12/12/2010 2:16 PM | Education
There is a strong indication that in the near future the National Education Ministry will fully support international standard project schools (RSBI) that are currently operating as well as more relatively established international standard schools (SBI).

Despite the public outcry over this policy, the ministry seems adamant that it will continue to allow the operation of the schools.
Many education experts have alerted us to the fact that the operation of schools with the label international not only undermines the spirit of national education, but also further widens the gap between the affluent and the poor. Their warning should not be taken as an exaggeration, owing to the fact that the politics of national education seems to have lost its orientation.
Swept away by the wave of globalization, our national education is forced to swing to the other extreme by bowing to the discourse on modernity to the virtual exclusion of our national identity.
Under this discourse on modernity, powerful nations often exert a considerable influence in shaping the perceptions of what constitutes reality, which is often manifested in different tangible forms, one being the use of language.
Such is the case where we are now celebrating the craze of the use of the English language or, to borrow American linguist Stephen Krashen’s term, “English fever” in our education landscape.
There is a growing tendency among both the elite classes and society at large to consider everything with an international-sounding name as a panacea for our troubling education system, which has long been marred with never-ending unnecessary and often counter-productive disputes.
While there is no question that as a nation in the pursuit of modernity we need to be progressive in our efforts to advance our education system, we must not allow ourselves to become enmeshed and disoriented in this globalized world.A word of wisdom by noted Indonesian education expert Mochtar Buchori is relevant here. He once asserted that the perspective of progressivism is needed to complement the perspective of conservatism, but cautiously warned a blind adherence to progressivism can lead to disorientation.
The boom of local schools — both state-funded and private — claiming to use an international curriculum may indicate that we have leapt far away from conservatism to progressivism without being cognizant of where we actually are and what educational vision we are adopting.
Our elite classes and the public’s knowledge about RSBI and SBI, likely due to a lack of a clear vision, is limited to the use of English as a medium of instruction in the classroom, the use of highly-advanced technological equipment to support learning, schools equipped with modern facilities, and the adoption of curricula and assessment instruments from advanced countries. As a means that can facilitate and accelerate teaching and learning process, we ineluctably need all of these.
However, what we fail to understand is that some of these supporting factors are the product of a cultural determination — which may be ecologically unfriendly to our context — rather than the product of our own creation. Education in general, and schools in particular should never take place in a social vacuum, because their existence shapes and is shaped by the society in which they operate. To counterbalance the possible negative impact of the schools with an international label operating in the local context, we need to place these schools in a broader sociological context, which helps provide a useful framework against which any educational practice can be assessed.
The writer is an associate professor at Atma Jaya Catholic University, Jakarta. He is chief editor of Indonesian Journal of English Language Teaching and can be contacted at setiono.sugiharto@atmajaya.ac.id

Influence of TV

In modern society, television provides many powerful models for children and abundant opportunities for observational learning. Many parents are concerned about the behaviors their children can observe on TV. Many television programs include depictions of sex, violence, drug and alcohol use, and vulgar language—behaviors that most parents do not want their children to imitate. Studies have found that by early adolescence, the average American child has watched thousands of dramatized murders and countless other acts of violence on television.

For many years, psychologists have debated the question of whether watching violence on television has detrimental effects on children. A number of experiments, both inside and outside the laboratory, have found evidence that viewing television violence is related to increased aggression in children. Some psychologists have criticized this research, maintaining that the evidence is inconclusive. Most psychologists now believe, however, that watching violence on television can sometimes lead to increased aggressiveness in children.

The effects of television on children behaviors are not all negative. Educational programs such as “Sesame Street” give children the opportunity to learn letters of the alphabet, words, numbers, and social skills. Such programs also show people who solve problems and resolve differences through cooperation and discussion rather than through aggression and hostility.

Learning

Learning, acquiring knowledge or developing the ability to perform new behaviors. It is common to think of learning as something that takes place in school, but much of human learning occurs outside the classroom, and people continue to learn throughout their lives.

Even before they enter school, young children learn to walk, to talk, and to use their hands to manipulate toys, food, and other objects. They use all of their senses to learn about the sights, sounds, tastes, and smells in their environments. They learn how to interact with their parents, siblings, friends, and other people important to their world. When they enter school, children learn basic academic subjects such as reading, writing, and mathematics. They also continue to learn a great deal outside the classroom. They learn which behaviors are likely to be rewarded and which are likely to be punished. They learn social skills for interacting with other children. After they finish school, people must learn to adapt to the many major changes that affect their lives, such as getting married, raising children, and finding and keeping a job.

Because learning continues throughout our lives and affects almost everything we do, the study of learning is important in many different fields. Teachers need to understand the best ways to educate children. Psychologists, social workers, criminologists, and other human-service workers need to understand how certain experiences change people’s behaviors. Employers, politicians, and advertisers make use of the principles of learning to influence the behavior of workers, voters, and consumers.

Learning is closely related to memory, which is the storage of information in the brain. Psychologists who study memory are interested in how the brain stores knowledge, where this storage takes place, and how the brain later retrieves knowledge when we need it. In contrast, psychologists who study learning are more interested in behavior and how behavior changes as a result of a person’s experiences.

There are many forms of learning, ranging from simple to complex. Simple forms of learning involve a single stimulus. A stimulus is anything perceptible to the senses, such as a sight, sound, smell, touch, or taste. In a form of learning known as classical conditioning, people learn to associate two stimuli that occur in sequence, such as lightning followed by thunder. In operant conditioning, people learn by forming an association between a behavior and its consequences (reward or punishment). People and animals can also learn by observation—that is, by watching others perform behaviors. More complex forms of learning include learning languages, concepts, and motor skills.

This article discusses general principles of learning. For information about the application of learning principles to formal education.