TEACHING VALUE
By: Rustiani Widiasih
A. INTRODUCTION
Teacher in broad sense is someone who teaches. Teaching is defined as an activity of transferring knowledge and skill from the teacher to the students. It means that teaching is a process that is done by the teacher to make the students understand the lesson. Brown (2000:7) in The Principle of language Learning and Teaching argues that teaching is guiding and facilitating learning, enabling the learner to learn, setting the condition for learning. To teach according to Oxford dictionary means to show somebody to do something or to give information about specific subject. Based on those statements, it can be said that teaching is to guide, inform, train and facilitate the students in learning process.
In most of teachers’ empowerment programs, however, it is mentioned that teacher is someone who educates and teaches. Besides teaching, teacher has role to educate. To educate in oxford dictionary means to train the mind and character of somebody or to teach somebody over a period of time at school, university etc. From that statement, it is known that a teacher must build the students’ character. In other words, teacher is a character educator.
Have teachers paid attention to train students’ mind and character? As English teachers, have teacher involved character building in teaching English to the students? Have they involved their heart and mind in learning and teaching process? How to implement character building in teaching English? How to integrate teaching value in English teaching and learning process?
B. CHARACTER EDUCATION
The term Character comes from Greek. Charassein, means to engrave. Shape the character is like carving on a stone or a hard metal surface. From those meaning, then character is defined as a distinctive pattern of behavior (Brook & Kann, 1993).
Character education is an investment system of values to the school community. Character education can be defined as "the deliberate use of all dimensions of school life to foster optimal character development optimally." Character education is a mean to build behavior of students. In (The Ministry of National Education, Research and Curriculum Development Centre, 2010), explains that character education is everything that teachers do, which could affect the character of students. Teachers help shape the character of students. This includes how is the behavior of teachers, how teachers speak or teach the material, how teachers' tolerance, and so on. In this case, teachers act as character builders.
Based on the above discussion can be said that character education is an effort designed and implemented systematically to help students understand the values of human behavior that relate to the Almighty God, self, human beings, the environment, and nationhood embodied in the mind , attitudes, feelings, words, and actions based on religious norms, laws, manners, culture, and customs. Simply character education is everything teacher does that influences the character of the students they teach. Character Education is the proactive and deliberate instruction of students in the area of morals and values.
Characters can be classified into two, namely the good character (fair, intelligent, brave, polite, honest, sincere, responsible, persistent, etc.) and bad characters (bad-tempered, lazy, deceitful, envious, selfish, cowardly, arrogant, liar, etc.) Character that is developed in Indonesia are good characters, such as; confident, rational, critical, analytical, creative, independent, responsible, love science, patient, careful, self-sacrificing, courageous, trustworthy, honest, keeping promises fair, humble, shy of making mistakes, forgiving, gentle, loyal, hard working, diligent, tenacious, thorough, positive thinking, discipline, visionary, earthy, vibrant, dynamic, and appreciate the time (The Ministry of National Education, Research and Development Curriculum Centre, 2010).
The followings are some example of character building education in Bruns Avenue in (http://www.ncpublicschols.org/charactereducation/handbook/pdf/content.pdf):
1. Respect (showing high regard for self, others, and property)
2. Responsibility (being accountable for your own behavior)
3. Honesty (being truthful in word and action)
4. Caring (showing concern for well being of others)
5. Justice and Fairness (demonstrating impartial, unbiased and equitable treatment for all)
6. Citizenship (being an informed, responsible and caring participant in your community)
7. Courage (doing the right thing in the face of difficulty Following your conscience instead of the crowd)
8. Perseverance (staying with a task and not giving up)
9. Hope (believing you will be successful)
C. TEACHING VALUE IN ENGLISH CLASS
How to teach English and at the same time teaching values which touch students heart? The curriculum teachers currently use is filled with opportunities to engage the students in thinking about character and values. Here are the examples of implementation of teaching English and value integratedly.
1. Discussion. It is said to be the best way to practice character building, like quoted in Licnola, (1991:5); “The best forms of character education also involve students in honest, thoughtful discussion and reflection regarding the moral implications of what they see around them, what they are told, and what they personally do and experience.”
2. Role play. It is one of the best alternatives. Role-play is transformative because it engages both cognitive and affective domains equally. Students will experience both positive and negative feelings as they would in a conflict situation in real life. Role play can make studebts feel like somebody else's feeling. The joy of role-play is that students can 'become' anyone they like for a short time such as the President, the Queen, a millionaire, a pop star, etc.
3. Simulation. It can train studentss to work cooperatively. It cannot happen without a group of people interacting within a social context to solve a problem. They form a virtual community, sometimes termed a “parallel universe”. The power of simulation is learning about oneself and how an individual interacts with the world around them. Simulations have a number of advantages as a learning method where the aim is to gain an appreciation of processes or complex dynamic in social systems.
4. Telling the story. Telling short stories will help students understand the right and wrong immediately. Ask the students to tell what the moral of the story so that differentiating between good and bad becomes easy for them. It can also help students to improve their listening to the story from the teacher.
5. Reading stories. It is a good way to cultivate good morals and principles to students. Students associate themselves to the lead character in the story and would do the same as they do. It’s also good to talk to them about what had happened in their the story and ask them what they would do when confronted with same situation. Teachers can help them to achieve good judgmental ability by helping them to analyze the consequences of the actions when there is more than one choice. Students should be able to reason out, distinguish between bad or good behavior and take appropriate decision. In short, build a strong foundation in the students can make them be able to face future challenges effectively and efficiently.
6. Being a presenter/ reporter/ news reader / broadcaster. In this approach student develop how to interact with other people in interview and student also learn how to broadcast in TV or radio. It develops student’s competence to speak fluently and explore ideas based on the topic. It’s always good to encourage the students to ask questions and give them satisfactory answers. This two way communication would help to understand each other better and also develop respect for ideals of good character
7. In teaching writing. Make students have their own purpose in writing (The students write not because the teacher asks them but because they want it. Because they like it). If students feel they want to write because they need to, it means teacher have done good starting point. The teacher’s job is to motivate the students to write. For example, students write based on pieces of pictures. They will get the inspiration for writing from the pictures. The teacher provides provocative pictures to generate student’s ideas or explore ideas in inventing step. The students create a conversation of imaginative story based on the pictures. Teacher can give opportunity to students to express their mind and feeling.
8. Generation Gap. Students make imaginative story about the generation gap which may happen in the real life. It can be generation gap between teachers and students, teachers and students, brothers and sisters, etc. In this imaginative conversation, students will also learn about moral value and way of thinking.
9. Drama. It is performing the story based on literary works. Students will perform mini drama or play based on the literary works they have known in regional, national or international level. They just adopt and adapt the works and make it into play. They may take Ande Ande Lumut , Sang Kuriang from Indonesian literary or Romeo Juliet, Hamlet Or Cinderella from western literary. Here, the students can learn many things such as cooperative, solidity, caring and courage.
D. CLOSING
It is teachers’ responsibility to prepare next generation with not only hard skills but also soft skills. Teaching soft skills, teaching values and building student’s character have to be carried out in the learning and teaching process. Touching students heart in teaching means teacher build their natural interests in learning. And at the same time, teachers enhance their mastery in subject matter. It is clearly quoted in one source: “When teachers bring to the fore the character dimension of the curriculum, they enhance the relevance of subject matter to students’ natural interests and questions, and in the process, increase student engagement and achievement.” So, Indonesia teacher, teach the students not only hard skill but also values.
References
Thomas Lickona, Educating For Character (New York: Bantam, 1991)
Marvin Berkowitz, as quoted in the Character Education Informational Handbook & Guide, North Carolina Dept. of Public Instruction (Raleigh, NC: http://www.ncpublicschools.org/charactereducation/handbook/pdf/content.pdf)
Brown, H. Douglas. 2001. Teaching by Principles An Interactive Approach to Language Pedagogy. Addison Wesley Longman, Inc
Calderonello, Alice Heim and edwards, Jr. Bruce L .1986 Rough Draft, The Process of Writing. Hoghton Muflin Company
De Potter, Bobbi. 2003 Quantum Learning, Kaif
David Brooks and Mark E. Kann, “What Makes Character Education Programs Work?” Educational Leadership (Alexandria, VA: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development, Nov. 1993) http://www.usoe.k12.ut.us/curr/char_ed/
Horby, et.al. 1948. The Advanced Learner’s Dictionary. Oxford University Press: London
Pengembangan Pendidikan Budaya Bangsa dan Karater Bangsa, Pedoman Sekolah. 2010. Kementerian Pendidikan Nasional Badan Penelitian dan Pengmbangan Pusat Kurikulum: Jakarta.