As an effort to accelerate added value for competency development for teachers and education personnel (GTK), Center for the Development and Empowerment of Educators and Natural Sciences Education (P4TK IPA), Ministry of Education, Culture, Research , and Technology (Kemendikbudristek) held Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) Education Leadership. This event is the result of a collaboration with meriSTEM, the National Institute of Education, Singapore which has been started since mid-2021 to develop the science community in education units.
In his written statement, Director General of Teachers and Education Personnel (Dirjen GTK), Iwan Syahril said that one of the learning approaches that can accommodate the characteristics of 21st century learning is STEM. “STEM learning shows students how concepts, principles of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics are used in an integrated manner to develop products, processes, and systems that provide benefits for human life,” he said on Thursday (14/4). ).
On a separate occasion, the Head of P4TK IPA, Enang Ahmadi also added that the STEM Education Leadership series this time has entered the second activity, namely mentoring the implementation of STEM learning in pilot schools (nuclei schools). “There are 20 schools in selected cities/districts in Indonesia that become nuclei schools. Mentoring will be carried out in four cycles from March to April 2022 in a hybrid manner with mentors who have been trained by P4TK IPA and observers from the local Subject Teacher Conference (MGMP) and the National Institute of Education (NIE) Singapore,” he explained.
Lili Indarti, Head of the P4TK IPA Foreign Cooperation Sub-Working Unit, added that this activity is one of a series of activities that have been scheduled to be carried out from 2022 to 2023. It is hoped that from this series of STEM-based learning activities, teachers will gain an understanding of the application of learning that increases competence. 21st century for students. In addition, this activity is a form of dissemination of school nuclei to other educational units which is a form of learning leadership.
One of the selected nuclei school locations in Cimahi, West Java, namely the Nur Al Rahman First Integrated Islamic School (SMPIT) carried out the fourth cycle of mentoring activities for the implementation of STEM learning through the open class movement which took place last Thursday (14/4).
“We are proud that our school, even though its operational age has only started in 2019, has been chosen as a nuclei school,” said the Head of SMPIT Nur Al Rahman, Jarwo when reviewing the implementation of the open class movement.
The open class movement at SMPIT Nur Al Rahman was divided into four groups of 25 students in grades VIII-A. Science subject teacher who is a participating teacher of STEM Education Leadership, Salindri Widatami conveys learning materials about the greenhouse effect (glass house).
“We saw that all students who were involved in today’s learning were active in discussion sessions and presentations. There has been a feeling of confidence from students in asking questions to teachers and classmates,” explained Tan Aik Ling, a representative from NIE, Singapore who was present online as an observer. He advised the teacher participants to continue to innovate, apply the knowledge gained and challenge the teacher to prepare other topics that are better.
At the end of the open class movement, Jarwo hopes that Kemendikbudristek can continue similar programs in a sustainable manner. “What has been done by the Ministry of Education and Culture is good, it doesn’t discriminate between schools in participating in STEM Education Leadership, I hope that continuous assistance for teachers will still be provided,” he concluded. This activity was also witnessed by the Head of the Curriculum Section, Cimahi City Education Office, Tohari online. |Kemendikbud|