Good Practices

Page 20 

Increasing Student Creativity through a Competition

SMPN 1 Sekar in Bojonegoro district is located 60 km south of Bojonegoro city on a hill bordering Madiun district. This remote school is not a DBE3 partner school. But the school is trying to adopt a learning innovations being spread by DBE3. To commemorate its 14th anniversary on November 5, 2010, SMPN1 Sekar held a series of activities that was based on the theme "Towards Innovative Learning." Activities include sports and arts competitions to foster the togetherness and creativity of the students. There was a special event for the anniversary this time, a Competition for Innovation in Students' Work in the form of wall magazine filled with students' work.

The competition was held in the hope that students would produce work and then use the wall magazine as a source of learning. "Events of this kind need to be organized each year. Especially the competition for Innovation in Students' Work, which will be in future be not only for the students but also for the teachers to encourage them to be increasingly creative and innovative in learning. The campaign for low-cost learning innovations initiated by the Principal has been fully supported by everyone in the school and the school committee and, although it has only been running for 10 months, it has produced results in the form of a variety of student work, "said Ahmad Juliono Wakasek, chairman of the school committee.

Looking at the children's work displayed in each classroom and the folders of children's work in the competition, we can conclude that, when given the tools and the encouragement, students at SMPN 1 Sekar can be very creative. The work of students who competed varied a great deal, ranging from a model of the school (Mathematics, materials congruency), a concept map (IPS) and puppet figures (local language).

Although the effort to increase students' creativity only began a few months ago, the changes are significant. Active Learning, Student-Centered Learning and Contextual Teaching and Learning (CTL), which the teachers have frequently heard about in lectures, are now being implemented in all classes. The teachers at SMPN 1 Sekar are also focusing on the advancement of IT education. 90% of teachers already have a laptop to help them with their teaching.

Enthusiastic for CTL

THE Classrooms at SMPN 4 Tebing Tinggi, North Sumatra look different. All the desks are arranged to form groups. The layout varies. Some are arranged in rectangles and some in a U-shape or L-shape. In addition, the teacher are actively implementing Contextual Teaching and Learning (CTL) in the five core subjects .

According to Syafril Purba, S. Pd the teachers have experienced a lot of positive changes since implementing CTL. Students enjoy learning more. Ester Widi Hastuti , a student in class VII-1 agreed with Pak Purba's statement. According to Ester, the new way of learning makes it easier to understand the lesson. Ester felt that learning was easier because they are given more chances to perform experiments. "We now do a lot of practical work," explained Esther.

Rahel Sinuraya a student in class VII-2 also thought the same. Rachel pointed out that she had understood Pythagoras theorem more easily because of the use of media. Pieces of paper provided by the teacher made it easier for Rachel to understand. Pak Purba is committed to using CTL. That commitment focuses on the provision of learning media. "We reimburse the teachers' costs, when they make their own media," said Pak Purba.

The result of a student experiment on phototropism in plants

A teacher acting as a facilitator to help a student during a lesson

Using simple learning media in a lesson

Rahel Sinuraya

Students in front of a wall magazine full of their work

Inovasi Pendidikan is published by DBE3 and funded by USAID in order to document and spread innovation and good practices in Junior Secondary Education. If you would like to contribute, please send your articles and pictures to thutabarat@savechildren.org.