The Ministry of Education and Culture (MoEC) through the Directorate of Teachers and Basic Education Personnel of the Directorate General of Teachers and Education Personnel (GTK) has held a Teacher Learning Webinar Series: Adapted Learning during the Pandemic since the end of June 2020. With various discussion themes, the webinar will be held until August 4, 2020. As a forum for teachers, school principals, school supervisors, supervisors, educators, and other education personnel, this webinar is expected to help gather positive energy while being empowered by and empowering fellow teachers and education personnel in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic by sharing and learning. INOVASI also participated by sending their resource person to one of the webinar series.
In the third Teacher Learning Webinar series which was held on July 13, 2020, INOVASI participated by sending their speaker. Acting as moderator was Romi Siswanto from the Directorate General of Teachers and Education Personnel of the Ministry of Education and Culture, with resource person Adin Nur Ariantok, M.Pd., from the state elementary school SDN Boyolangu 1, Tulungagung, East Java, who spoke on “Effectively and efficiently implementing Formative Assessment on Elementary School Students in Blended Distance Learning” and Sri Widuri from INOVASI who spoke on “Preparation of Thematic Lesson Plans or RPP for Distance Learning: What should be focused on?“
In terms of Blended Distance Learning (BDL) or Blended Pembelajaran Jarak Jauh (Blended PJJ), Adin shared his experiences, especially in carrying out formative assessments. He told how he undertook Blended PJJ in the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, designed lessons plans, and finally, implemented formative assessments. Initially, he imagined that PJJ should be online, but according to him this strategy was not quite right. From a total of 29 students, only 24 were actively working, while the other five students never worked on the assignments that they were given. After asking for some information, apparently, the students were unable to do the assignments because they did not have access to a cell phone.
The issuance of Ministry of Education and Culture Circular Letter (SE) Number 4 of 2020 has provided enlightenment for him. Under the 2013 Curriculum, the teachers are obliged to complete all the basic competencies or kompetensi dasar (KD) of students, but this Circular Letter says that teachers are not obliged to complete them. For Adin, the relaxation of this curriculum makes it very easy for him as a teacher. He also started planning Blended PJJ which combining offline and online learning.
Lessons learnt from the implementation of Study From Home or Belajar dari Rumah (BDR) program
Meanwhile, Sri, who represented INOVASI on this occasion, shared four learning findings from the implementation of the School from Home (BDR) program during the pandemic based on a rapid survey conducted by the INOVASI program in four partner provinces, namely West Nusa Tenggara (NTB), East Nusa Tenggara (NTT), North Kalimantan, and East Java.
First, Sri said that the survey which was conducted in April 2020 found that the level of readiness of parents, teachers, and students was quite variable in implementing BDR. The second finding was related to the learning media and found that offline media was mostly used by INOVASI survey respondents. Third, in terms of material, psychologically, teachers still felt that they had to complete the curriculum. Finally, INOVASI consistently found that there are several groups of students who are at the greatest risk during this pandemic, such as these children are not receiving good quality learning or even any learning at all.
Aside from the rapid survey, INOVASI also learned lessons on the implementation of Study from Home (BDR) from small scale interventions. Last April, a number of Student Worksheet (LKS) were rapidly developed by INOVASI by using materials related to literacy, numeracy, character education, and psycho-education that were expected to complement the curriculum. The target of these LKS is parents who do not have internet access or who have only minimal internet access.
The results from the INOVASI reflection after developing and testing the use of these LKS in BDR activities were: first, clear, interesting, and simple instructions in the LKS are very useful for parents and students. Second, parents felt that they were unable, unsatisfactory, or ineffective in helping their children. Third, parents of children with special needs needed extra support. Fourth, students needed learning and reading materials that were suited to their abilities. So according to the parents, in addition to providing tasks, support is also needed, especially for parents, who come from economically vulnerable groups. This support can be in various forms, including media, and reading materials and writing tools.
INOVASI suggestions in preparing Thematic Lesson Plan for Distance Learning:
Ability of Students and Parents
Before formulating Lesson Plan or Rencana Pelaksanaan Pembelajaran (RPP), of course, knowledge about students’ abilities is needed. In normal times, this concerns students’ academic results. But for Distance Learning or Pembelajaran Jarak Jauh (PJJ), where children study from home, it is also necessary to know the level of student learning independence (non-academic aspects). In addition to students’ abilities, it is necessary to know parents’ economic circumstances as well as their ability to read and write to find out whether parents have sufficient ability to guide their children. At the beginning of the school year, teachers should not only conduct a diagnostic assessment of student competencies and a competency analysis and seek information about students’ non-academic abilities and the abilities of their parents. To carry out the diagnostic/initial assessment, INOVASI has a tool to measure the ability of a student’s reading, writing, and counting skills or calistung, especially at the elementary school (SD) or Islamic elementary school (MI) level. Additionally, the Student Learning Profile or Profile Belajar Siswa (PBS) diagnostic tool can be used by teachers and parents to detect learning difficulties in children who are suspected of having special needs.
Cooperation with Parents
In these difficult times, one of the fundamental changes in education systems around the world has been shift in the role of parents. And this shift is actually returning parents to the role that they are supposed to play as the first educators for their children. Teachers can work together with parents to design Lesson Plan (RPP), or provide opportunities for parents to provide input. Even though this is not the goal of the Lesson Plan (RPP), activities and media can be used. Therefore, parents and their children can agree on what learning activities are possible to do at home by using the resources that they have. Sri has had quite lengthy teaching experience as an elementary school teacher, and she admits that doing this is certainly not easy. There are some parents who may be very difficult to communicate with, and this is where a teacher and loyalty to his/her profession is tested, by constantly trying to communicate with parents so that they are finally ready to support their children in learning. This is very important both in times of pandemic and during normal times.
Variation of Activities
There needs to be a variety of activities during Distance Learning (PJJ). Parents and students, if given the option, will use varied types of learning activities. For example, activities that build cognitive and non-cognitive function, indoor and outdoor activities, writing, drawing, and singing. This variation is important in maintaining the motivation of children and their parents. There is no need to be monotonous, such as only doing writing tasks. Variations in the time allocated for activities are also important. The lesson plan does not have to be per class hour; it may be per week depending on the agreement with the parents over how many hours they can help their children each week.
Media
In designing lesson plans, there is definitely a need to consider what media can be used to support the achievement of goals that are carried out in class. In PJJ that is carried out at home, the teacher also needs to think about whether the media is also available at home. For offline learning, INOVASI recommends that teachers use objects that are easily found around students’ homes. Even if there are specific items that need to be purchased, they should be easy to obtain and at an affordable cost.
Assessment
The most appropriate assessment component in the Distance Learning (PJJ) related to Thematic Lesson Plan (RPP), is, of course, formative assessment because it is still within the learning process. There should be at least two types of formative assessment that can be used in PJJ. First, Assessment for Learning in which the teacher learns, with the support of parents, and receives feedback about the extent to which the child has achieved learning goals, and if they have not, then that could be corrected in the next lesson plan. Second, there is also an Assessment as Learning in which the assessment is part of a student’s learning. The self-assessment model can be included as one of the assessment components in the Thematic RPP, because this will encourage student independence, which is really necessary and relevant for PJJ. Parents once again need to be involved in conducting formative assessments, so that they can also know the extent of their children’s achievements and the effectiveness of the support they are providing.
