Practice Teaching & Class Observation

A week goes by with so many agendas from getting a Visa/Student Permitt, opening the program, to having dinner together. The second week quite different, it was filled with an introductory to the education system in Philippines. We have a tour and shown various laboratories that they used in the learning and teaching process. We were also taught to make lesson plans and exchange information related to differences in the education system implemented in Indonesia and Philippines.

Indonesia applies the K-13 curriculum while Philippines applies a curriculum called k to 12. From the terms used they are almost similar but the application is different. Indonesia and K-13 apply the concept of learning more easily because some of the material is streamlined and narrowed down but it is still adjusted to international standard learning materials so that the education can be balanced with foreign education. Philippines with k to 12 is designed to provide holistic education for all Filipino students. The K to 12 curriculum is designed to enable graduates to join the workforce right after high school, and suitably prepare those who want to go on to higher education.

The education system in Indonesia and the Philippines both refer to the syllabus. But Indonesia's education system more complicated because it requires teachers to prepare lesson plans that contain learning plans for one year or two semesters at the beginning of the period. Unlike the case with the learning system in the Philippines, teachers are only required to make a daily lesson plan before giving material in class. So Indonesia compiles and plans a year of learning planning, the Philippines only plans a lesson plan that will be taught for tomorrow.

The first thing I noticed was that this school did not use class attendance to find out the attendance of its students. The teacher just giving questions of how many people were absent today. The class attendancies is applied not too strict because the level of willingness to go to school in Philippines especially in Tarlac is still low, due to economic problems and several other problem. "We cannot force them to go to school because some of them sometimes have to work to deal with the economic needs" said Sir William as my Cooperating Teacher. But it doesn't become an obstacle for them to keep up in learning and studying. They are able to understand lessons quickly and are very active in the classroom despite the limitations of existing school facilities.