ENGLISH TEACHERS’ PERCEPTION ON THE IMPLEMENTATION OF THE 2013 CURRICULUM: THE SIGNIFICANCE OF CHARACTER BUILDING LOADS Mirjam Anugerahwati State University of Malang

Background The 2013 Curriculum of Indonesia has been implemented in some “pilot” schools since 2013, and in the 2014 academic year all schools have to implement it However, not all teachers are ready for the implementation, from the aspects of the first and second Core Competences (KI 1 and KI 2)

Background (contd) One of the biggest changes in the 2013 Curriculum is the character building issues, which are elaborated into 2 Core Competences (KI) The researcher wanted to know how teachers view the two KIs; hence, the small study on teachers in East Java Province

The Study The study was conducted in two sessions; the first was with Senior High School teachers in Malang Regency, while the second was with teachers of Junior High, Senior High, and Vocational High School teachers in East Java The findings are explained in the following slides

The method The study was aimed at finding an answer to the general question of “how do teachers of English perceive the first and second Core Competences in the 2013 Curriculum?” Data were obtained through questionnaire distributed to 42 teachers of English in Malang Regency and some other towns in East Java Province

The Findings Malang Regency (24 teachers): all (100%) knew that the character building loads are stated in KI1 and KI2, and that they cover religious attitude and social attitude Fourteen (58.3%) teachers had attended workshops/seminars on K13

The Findings (2) Sixteen (66.6%) teachers stated that their schools had implemented the K13 Although not all respondents had implemented the K13, 23 (95.8%) stated that they had implemented the character building in their English lessons. Some said that they are similar to the 2006 Curriculum

The Findings (3) The respondents said that they integrated the character building in their lesson plans, their teaching-learning activities, and the day-to-day activities with the students All (100%) stated that they approved of the character building loads in K13; even those who have not implemented the curriculum.

The Findings (4) In answering the question about the difficulty in implementing the character building loads, the majority of the respondents stated that the biggest obstacle was the diverse culture and background of the students They had various ways to solve the problem, e.g by discussing it with other teachers, by consulting with the religion teacher, etc.

The Findings (5) Regarding the assessment of the character competences, all respondents stated that they did face problems, albeit in different aspects (the assessment instruments, the method, the things to assess, etc) The solution varied; some even stated that there was still no solution at this time

The Findings (6) East Java Teachers (18): like the Malang teachers, all respondents knew that the character building loads were elaborated in KI1 and KI2 Unlike Malang teachers, however, only 3 (16.6%) had attended workshop/seminars on K13, and only 5 (27.7%) had implemented the K13 in their schools

The Findings (7) Regarding the implementation of character building, 13 (72.2%) stated that they had integrated the character building in their lesson plans and daily teaching-learning activities, since they were not different from the characters required in the 2006 curriculum The rest had not implemented it because they did not know enough

The Findings (8) The respondents were divided in answering whether they approved of the character building loads in English subject; some said they did, some others were unsure as they did not know enough of the curriculum, and still others stated that they approved of the social attitude, but not the religious attitude as it was too complicated

The Findings (9) Regarding the problems in implementing and assessing the character building in English, the respondents were also of differing views; the problems might be caused by various factors, and thus assessing it would also pose various difficulties Most of the difficulties were in the area of complicatedness, the many aspects to be assessed, the instruments, and the unclear rubrics

Conclusions Most English teachers in Malang Regency and many towns in East Java view the character building loads in the 2013 Curriculum as something good and needed by the students However, they still face difficulties in assessing the character aspects in their lessons

Suggestions As was stated by many of my respondents, the Government need to give more workshops to implement the KI 1 and KI 2, not only on KI 3 and KI 4 The workshops should be subject-based, not the “generic” ones, as each subject has different characteristics (e.g is it logical to assess KI 1 in English by counting how many “Thanks Gods” a student utters?)

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