How to Apply the Learning Theory to Support Class Activity Research

Learning is a process to improve students’ aspects like knowledge and soft skill as individual interaction that linked in psychology, learning methods, learning aids, etc. Learning is continuing as long as human life. One of some human factors in learning is teachers. They teach students in class that have more times than students parents in the home. In teaching process, teacher must make an active, innovative, and creative learning to their students. It is not just a hope, they must make it real with doing a research in a class, and it is called Class Activity Research (CAR). This aim is to improve the quality of learning activity and the result in class. In other word, Class Activity Research is a learning research in class by teachers to solve learning problems, repair the learning quality and the result, and trying new things in learning process. Class Activity Research is different with the other researches that more substance on science, for example in experiment research take a look in how the effectively of treatment, but in Class Activity Research more respect in process and the result of treatment as logical consequent from the great treatment. Class Activity Research consists of four repeated activities and every cycle consist of four main activities, there are:

1.      Planning

2.      Action

3.      Monitoring

4.      Reflection

Because of Class Activity Research relate with teaching and learning activity in class, there are some theories that support class activity research, there are:

1.      Contextual (Contextual Teaching and Learning)

Komalasari (on Bio Sanjaya) said that contextual teaching and learning is a learning and teaching approaching that linked the subject in school with daily life, and the aims is to find out the meaning of subject to the students daily life.

Characteristics of contextual teaching and learning are:

a.       learning in real life setting

b.      meaningful learning

c.       learning by doing

d.      learning in group

e.        learning to know each other deeply

f.       leaning to ask, to inquiry, to work together

g.      learning as an enjoy activity

Contextual Teaching and Learning can be done if it based on some concepts, they are:

a.       relating concept

b.      experience directly concept

c.       applying concepts

d.       cooperating concept

e.       self-regulating concept

f.       authentic assessment concept

Contextual teaching and learning can be done if it involve seven main component, they are:

1.      constructivism

2.      interdependent learning groups

3.      inquiry

4.      questioning

5.      modeling

6.      reflection

2.      Realistic

Realistic Mathematics Education (RME) is an approach in mathematics that developed by Freudenthal in Netherland. Gravemeijer (on http://www.sekolahdasar.net) told that activities in RME are problem solving activity, problem searching, and organize main problems. This RME is school mathematics that placed reality and students experiences as start point of learning. Learning realistic mathematics there are three principals as basic to arrange the learning, they are:

1.       Reinvention and Progressive Mathematics

2.      Didactical phenomenology

3.      Self-developed models

Realistic mathematics learning started from real world and then they find out mathematics concepts. The last, applying into daily life problems or in the other sides.

3.       Constructivism

This theory believes that students can make the problems by their own, arrange their knowledge trough thinking ability and challenge that their face solve and make a concept about all realistic experiences and theory in one unit. Constructivism theory has some followers, there are:

a.       John Dewey (1856-1952)

He had been written many papers about education and he is known as Father of Constructivism. His idea was used as basic of constructivism method and discovery learning. He told that learning depended on experiences and will own students, and curriculum topics must relate each others. Learning must be active, directly, and students centered learning in social experiences contents. Learning process need students active and teamwork to do the tasks. Teacher just as a facilitators and taking a part as a member of group. Dewey was also suggest to using technology media as tools learning. Today, this concept has been using in Indonesia, especially in university.

b.      Jean Piaget (1896-1980)

Piaget told that students must learning directly in realistic with object that learned. Learning must be active and social. There are individual thinking steps:

1.      Sensorimotoric (0-2 years)

2.      Preoperational (2-7 years)

3.      Concrete operational (7-11 years)

4.      Formal operational (12-15 years)

Based on Piaget, human thinking has a structure that called schemata (usually called cognitive structure). Using that schema, people adapted and coordinate their environment such that formed new schemata trough assimilation and accommodation. The new schemata is called knowledge. The implication about Piaget theory is teacher should adjust learning process to the students cognitive. If it didn’t do, teacher and students will be hard to reach the mean aims of learning.

c.       Jerome Brunner (1915- )

Based on Brunner, learning is an active process that linked with Discovery Learning. It means that students interact with the environment through exploration and object manipulation, making questions, and doing the experiments. Some factors that must be watched by teachers are:

1.      Teachers as facilitators, checking student knowledge before, prepare sources of learning, and asking open mind questions.

2.      Students built the meaning trough explorations, manipulations, and thinking.

3.      Using technology in learning process, student should do by their selves and know how to use it. 

This theory need repeated act so it called curriculum repeated Brunner theory. This curriculum ask teacher to teach subject of learning steps by steps start from the most simple to the most complex and the subject of learning before can appeared again to start new more complex subject.

d.      Lev Vygotsky (1896-1934)

Based on Vigotsky, learning is done as an interaction between students with social environment and physic. Mean constructivism of Vigotsky is interaction between internal aspect and external that more respect to the social environment in learning. Social interaction is learned by students trough adult people in their around, so teacher as a guide students activity and make students to be independent working. In this theory is also talk about scaffolding. It means giving an important ability to solve the problems independently like discussion with students, practice directly, and giving motivations. The last, this theory is also talk about zone of proximal development (ZPE). It means the area where students can learn by helping competent people. The evaluation is done by checklist, friends review, or question.

References:

Sugihartono, dkk.. 2007. Psikologi Pendidikan. Yogyakarta: UNY Press

_____. (2012). Model Pembelajaran RME atau Realistic Mathematics Education. (online) http://www.sekolahdasar.net/2011/08/model-pembelajaran-rme-atau-realistic.html, accessed on April 13^th 2012 at 09:00 Pm.