Learning Paradigm in Higher Education

Orientation Material 0

Suwardjono2014 E:\Seminar-Loka\Pembekalan_ING

Paper for Preparation (Orientation) of New Students

Learning Paradigm in Higher Education:From Lecturing to Facilitating

(From Teacher-Centered to Student-Centered Learning)

SuwardjonoFaculty of Economics and Business

Gadjah Mada UniversityYogyakarta

[email protected]

The Indonesian version of this article is downloadable from:http://suwardjono.staff.ugm.ac.id/buku/gagasan-pengembangan-profesi-dan-pendidikan-akuntansi-di-indonesia/

20-paradigma-belajar.html

After you read, understand, and feel enlightened, please give or pass this article to your friends, boarding friends, friends from

another class, seniors, juniors, or anyone who needs to know the ideas in this article.

For lecturers, copy and pass this article for discussion and share with new students before starting or at the beginning of a course

and with senior students for enlightenment.

November 2014

This article may be reproduced and disseminated for educational purpose without permission from the author.

http://suwardjono.staff.ugm.ac.id/buku/gagasan-pengembangan-profesi-dan-pendidikan-akuntansi-di-indonesia/20-paradigma-belajar.html



Learning Paradigm in Higher Education: From Lecturing to Facilitating1

Suwardjono

Studying at university is a strategic choice to achieve individual goals for those who commit themselves to learning through the formal channel. However, in reality educa-tional institutions and faculties find teaching-learning conditions that in many ways are far from expectations. Student’s behavior and teaching styles just do not lend them-selves to producing individuals with all of the scholarly attributes or qualities. One of the factors that has created this unfavorable atmosphere is the gap of expectation and understanding among participants (administrators, faculties, and students) about the meaning and purpose of higher education learning.

This paper evaluates the current state of teaching-learning atmospheres that I observed and felt during a long carrier as an instructor in several universities. These conditions have not reflected an academic, professional, and scientific vigor that should characterize higher education enterprise. Indeed, my concern has long occurred and I have put it in writing more than twenty years ago.2 Since then, I have made an unyield-ing effort to share the ideas of radical changes in the strategy of teaching and learning in a number of seminars and workshops at various universities. But until now, it seems to me that, in general, there have been no significant changes in the culture of learning at universities in Indonesia.

Based on these evaluations, I put forward quite feasible ideas to embark on fairly radical changes. These changes are intended to rectify the dysfunctional perception and understanding of real learning in universities. The purposes of this paper are twofold. First, to create a new image about studying in university to replace the old dysfunc-tional one. Second, to eliminate the expectation gaps between students and teachers/administrators so that classroom learning in a truest sense is an enjoyable experience without neglecting the aspiration and tenacity of scientific or professional endeavor.

Learning is the right of every person. However, learning at university is a privilege because only those who qualify are entitled to study at the institution. The privileges attach not only in physical infrastructures and human resources provided but also in the formal recognition that a person has undergone certain training and learning processes. With such a recognition, the expectation is that a person who has undergone a formal learning process will have the insight, knowledge, skills, personality, and behavior for which the university has set its vision, mission, and goals. The goals of a university is generally associated with a national education goals. It should be noted that learning is an individual exercise, an exercise that is consciously chosen because someone has certain individual goals. Studying in university is a strategic choice among alternative strategic choices to pursue individual goals. Awareness of this notion will determine the attitudes and views of learning in university that will ultimately determine the serious commitment of learning. how people learn in university.

Ideally, because students get the privileges to learn in university, they are required to behave more than those who do not get such privileges. They are demanded not only to have

1A translation from “Revolusi Paradigma Pembelajaran Perguruan Tinggi: Dari Penguliahan ke Pembelajaran”(Suwadjono, 2008)

2A large part of this paper is based on my article “Perilaku Belajar di Perguruan Tinggi” published in JurnalAkuntansi & Manajemen STIE YKPN (March 1991). The ideas in this paper have been presented (and revised) invarious seminars and workshops in several universities for lecturers or students.



the technical skills but also the power of knowledge, frame of mind, reasoning, mental atti-tude, personality, and wisdom. These are the personalities of scholarship. They should have qualities or attributes that are supposedly different from those who do not undergo higher education in coping with problems in the real world (society). Those qualities ultimately dis-tinguish those who truly from those who fortuitously have learned in university. The person-ality will manifest itself in the attitudes, actions, and appearance not because of snobbishness but because of genuineness the society sincerely appreciate. Several attributes that make up this personality of this scholarship are:

• In-depth knowledge in the discipline • Reasoning and articulation ability• Scholarly language mastery• Courteousness in scientific, professional, and social interactions.• Wisdom of the discipline.

Internalized wisdom should be nurtured through the proper process of learning and reflection on learning experiences related to the discipline. Buchori (2000) provides the char-acteristics of a man of wisdom:3

• Extensive knowledge (learnedness)• Ingenuity or smartness• Common sense• Insight of what is known• Prudence or discreteness• Understanding of the norms of truth• The ability to digest life experience.

Apart from what Buchori mentions above, reasoning and articulation (synthesis) abilities are also essential attributes of wisdom. Paragraphs in a good book embody good reasoning because the composition of paragraphs requires a clear and good reasoning. Therefore, a rea-soning skill is automatically developed when the learners are able to comprehend something just by reading. This in turn enables them to express ideas in a good writing. Thus, reading good books or other sources is an indispensable activity of learners to the development of rea-soning ability. Nonetheless, reading ability also calls for a mastery of languages (Indonesian and English) more than just for daily general conversation. Learners should get to higher level of language for academic and scientific purposes. Therefore, actual scholarly personality will develop and characterize graduates when students develop knowledge not only by ways of hearing and talking but also by ways of reading, writing, listening, and speaking. These four ways should become basic skills for students either while they study in the university or after they graduate. Figure 1 in the flollowing page illustrates the basic capabilities to be developed further in undergraduate education, even more in graduate programs.

If students are not willing to read to understand something, the actual learning process will never happen. The unwillingness to read before class meetings is the stumbling block to learning process in Indonesia. Most students rely on the explanation from faculties4 through rote-teaching. One complaint that is often voiced by students is the textbooks are incompre-

3Mochtar Buchori, “Peran Pendidikan dalam Budaya Politik di Indonesia,” Basis (Juli-Agustus 2000).4Faculty, instructor, lecturer, and professor are used interchangeable.



.

hensible or the language that is too complicated (high-styled). This applies not only to English textbook but Indonesian as well. If this is the case than it is the responsibility of the universi-ties and faculties to improve students’ language proficiency in order to enable them to read, write, listen, and communicate ideas effectively. Students should be exposed to a learning strategy to convince students that understanding by their own reading is an exciting and enjoyable experience. Unless students really feel this experience, reading is only a burden. This learning strategy may be totally different from learning habits that students may have been undergoing for long in their pre-university learning. Students should also be told about the nature and advantages of the strategy and be committed to it so that no gap occurs between faculties and students regarding the strategy. Differences in expectation about learn-ing approach can lead to frustration on the part of both faculties and students.

My subjective evaluation is that scholarly personality has not actually realized because those who are privileged to learn in university have ended up doing or acting (including learn-ing) the same way as those who do not learn through formal academic education. The only dif-ference is that university students hold a student card, giving the impression that they are specialized citizens with higher status and honor. Teaching-learning process in university nowadays has not been able to significantly change the insight and behavior of students since they entered university. Scholarly attributes has not significantly developed and recognizable. One way to empirically test this condition is the performance of students in comprehensive exam. In this exam, it is evident that the quality of reasoning, articulation, and comprehen-sion of subject matter is far below the normal expectation. It can also be said that by the time students graduate from university the only new attribute is the degree and some skills, but they in fact are no different from those who acquire the same skills without going through for-mal education or even the same as those who do not undergo university education.

If this condition perpetuates, the university will be just a place to stand in line to gain admission to the real learning arena, the real world practice and experience. In other words, those who have graduated from university have not actually gone through a real scholarly learning during the process other than that they have ever became or lived as students. As a result, the real contribution of higher education to advance the society will be limited even though students may be successful in reaching narrow and short-term individual goals.

Various accusations and negative picture about the quality of primary education/second-ary and higher education have been brought up as well as ideas for improvement have been suggested by education experts and observers.5 Various factors have brought about such learning conditions. Learning process, bureaucracy, curriculum, national uniform exam, com-petence, and textbooks in primary and secondary education are several factors affecting the quality of university intakes [see for example Kompas, "Catatan Pendidikan Akhir Tahun

5See for example, Otto Soemarwoto, “Potret Buruk Perguruan Tinggi Kita,” Kompas (31 Juli 2000).

Figure 1. Scholarly Basic Skills

+

Calls for an appropriate learning method

ReadWriteListenSpeak

HearTalk



(Notes on Year-End Education)", December 27 to 31, 2002, Nasution (2000), Tanje (2003), Christianto (2003), and Sriyanto (2003)]. The accreditation issues, the behavior of educators, education law and regulations, and the commercialization of education are also factors that allegedly trigger the current condition of higher education [e.g. Kompas, December 21, 2002, "Pendidikan Nasional, Ibarat Tas yang Tak Bisa Dibuka (National Education, Like a Bag That Cannot Be Opened)", Heryanto (2000), and Susilo (2007)].

This paper evaluates and discusses two main ideas at microlevel, namely learning objec-tives and the learning factors. Macrolevel issues that have been widely discussed by expert and observers ultimately have to be carried out in the form of activity units called courses (kuliah). Universities are appropriate vehicles to initiate radical changes because they inher-ently have greater flexibility in policy decisions compared to primary/secondary and high school education.

Learning Objectives

There are two reinforcing learning objectives or goals.6 The first is the objectives of educa-tional institutions in providing a source of knowledge and learning experiences and the second is the objective of individual students in their learning

Teaching-learning process should align institutional goals dan individual student goals and even national education goals. Institutional and student objectives are not really well con-ceived by both parties so that learning process is almost no different from that in a practical or vocational training. Suppose now that apart from providing educational services, educational institutions also aim at providing services in accordance the mission of national education. The question is what is the actual student’s individual goal? This goal is even often difficult to be identified or is clearly formulated by those who decide to study in a university. Phenomena that are often perceived by students are university learning is nothing more than a social needs rather than challenging intellectual need. This social need often arises not from stu-dents themselves but from the need of others (such as parents). Sindhunata (2000) confirmed this by showing that parents are willing to spend whatever the amount of money as long as their kids can attend a school or university. If the degree is solely the objective of parents for their sons and daughters, it may happen that students feel that learning at university is a bur-den, torture, ordeal, or suffering rather than a necessity for self-development, self-actualiza-tion, and self-maturation.

Misperceptions like this will result in unfavorable attitudes and enthusiasm. The situa-tion can be even worse if it turns out that university also gave only technical knowledge and skills without emphasizing challenges to the students to think conceptually and critically. Worse yet, if the expectation of students is just like that; diploma is the goal regardless of what are learned and how they learn. People who learn in university do have dreams and individual goals. The dreams and goals should be clear and concrete. If necessary they should be cast into a realistic time horizon in the form of career plan or even life plan. Generally, however, the dreams and goals are just beautiful vague shadows that are nothing more than wishful think-ing. Career plans will affect the passion and spirit (positive driving force) of learning in uni-versity. A career plan is indeed not an easy thing to do but it should be attempted. Individual study goals should be closely associated with the projected self-image in society in which some-one will bind and devote himself. In marketing parlance, self-image is an analogy to product positioning. Once students are firm with their projected self-image, they should be unaffected by distorted or dysfunctional learning practices.

6Objectives or goals are usually used at course level. Outcomes are used at program level.



Factors of Learning

Again, whatever the goals to be achieved through study in university, eventually they must be achieved in the form of units of learning activities called course or lecture. A lecture should be defined in a new perspective not in a traditional sense. Lecture is a form of interaction between faculties, students, and knowledge. Knowledge itself takes a various forms including faculties’ knowledge. Understanding and perception of the relationships among these three factors determine the success of learning in university. The following is my evaluation about factors that make up the actual learning activities. The awareness of this evaluation (by administrators, faculties, and students) can be a starting point to make improvements with-out having to wait national policy changes. This is possible because of the flexibility inherent in the administration of higher education than that of pre-university education.

Meaning of Lecture

Lecture is an activity that distinguishes formal and non-formal education. However, one thing to note is that lecture is not the only source of knowledge and not the only learning activity in a narrow sense. Students get the impression of lecture not from their awareness of the real meaning of lecture but from their experience in classes they take. Mistaken impression will lead to a disparity of meaning and purpose of lecture among educational institutions, teach-ers, and students that affect the effectiveness of learning process. Figure 2 shows two differ-ent perceptions about lecture..

Panel A depicts the perception of lecture that is most prevalent in my evaluation. In Panel A, the lecture and the lecturer are considered to be the main source of knowledge (and even the only source) so that lecture notes become a powerful amulet and lecturer is the god of knowledge (but only because he hides the knowledge). Students expect lecturers to teach and explain slowly, systematically, clearly, and in detail so they will understand concepts or knowl-edge if necessary without reading any textbooks whatsoever. In this way, students can produce good, systematic, and complete lecture notes the content of which is the same as the content of books they never read. That’s the best professor (lecturer). Such a learning environment puts a lecturer to be like a magician who looks smart but only because he knows the tricks that are deliberately hidden and then he sells knowledge through lecture counter. Students acquire knowledge records (without understanding) through a process of piecemeal audiocopy from

A

Science, Knowledge and Skills

B

Faculty

Students

Faculty Students

Science, Knowledge and Skills

Figure 2. Perceptions on Meaning of Lecture

A class is a forum for confirmation of understanding about science and

knowlege as free goods.



the hand of lecturer like buying a cake from a stall. Students are satisfied with the purchase and cake without having to eat and taste the deliciousness of the cake.

This erroneous perception is not solely the students’ fault because the perception may arise precisely from the attitude of the lecturers who are unknowingly have created such con-ditions. Consequently, most students behave just to come, sit, listen, and record minus think. Lecture notes are considered the only source of knowledge and if necessary students do not have to attend class but just to photocopy notes from other students. Because the approach to control the learning process in the classroom are not conducive to real learning and empower-ing, many students feel more comfortable being an audiocopy machine. If individual goals to be achieved effectively, the meaning of lecture must be redefined and the redefined meaning should be implemented consistently.

Panel B of Figure 2 is a redefined meaning of lecture and learning. With this new defini-tion, science, knowledge, and skills are free goods (although there is some cost to obtain it). Students and faculty have the same position in the access to knowledge. Faculty is different from students in the knowledge in that the faculty has insights and valuable experiences with respect to such knowledge. Faculties acquire insight and experiences because they undergo a process of learning beforehand and because they interact with practitioners or because they conduct research on their subject matter or field of interest. Thus, the lecture or the class meeting should be interpreted as a forum for confirming the understanding of the students and faculty of the free knowledge. A lecture or a course is not just a class meeting.

On one hand, undeniable fact is that the class time is very short and limited. On the other hand, the scope and depth of the material can not be given immediately in such a short time. The issue is what should be done in that very short and limited time? If class time is filled up with activities that students can actually do themselves outside the classroom (unfortunately, this is mostly the case) then the class does not create added value. No real learning happens in the classroom. What actually happens is a transfer of lecture notes from faculty to students through the audiocopy process (a process that is far more primitive than photocopy). The effectiveness of the class meeting to support the learning process relies heavily on the mutual understanding and conception of faculty and students of the meaning of class meeting. An understanding gap may bring about frustration on both sides.

The Function of Class Meeting

The learning process is an independent activity and lectures are planned activities for rein-forcement of students’ understanding of knowledge material as a result of self-learning activi-ties. Figure 3 in the following page shows the function of the class meeting as a medium to strengthen the understanding and not as a source of knowledge. If at the beginning of the class meeting students have prepared themselves, students have sufficient prior knowledge for discussion. Thus, the function of the class will be a means to better understand what is previously doubtful. With the guidance and necessarily limited explanation from the instruc-tor or with variety of ideas from class discussion, students will quickly and easily capture what is essence of the topic. The level of comprehension will increase dramatically the function of faculty’s explanation is only to reinforce what the students already understand. This is shown by a solid (green) understanding graph. If students do not prepare for class and only come to a class with empty mind (this is mostly the case) then the understanding will be hampered or even no understanding process at all because the faculty no longer explain everything in detail and completely. This is shown by dashed (red) understanding graph. Compared to the solid graph, the dashed line is climbing but not as steep as the solid understanding graph. After the class meeting, of course, understanding will decline because of the passage of time. However,



the decline in understanding of prepared students is not as plummeting as in that of totally unprepared students. This is due to the fact that prepared students study for understanding the next topic while the previously studied topic is further strengthened by the following materials which refers to previous topic. Students who enter the classroom with a blank mind may still gain an understanding but very little and obscure and as soon as the class is over their vague understanding will soon disappear. The next topic, which requires an understand-ing of previous topics, becomes more difficult to comprehend and ultimately students tend to memorize any topic without reasoning and understanding. At the end, the unprepared stu-dents do not get anything from faculties because the faculties no longer teach the way they expect. This happens because there are a large parts of topic that students must study or read by their own. If they are in doubt, they can bring the issue to the class discussion. But alas, several students complain: "If I have to read by myself, what is the task of the lecturer then? What should I pay him/her for?"

Syllabus As A Learning Contract

An agreement (commitment) between faculty and students in the form of syllabus and plan of study is a must in education. The agreement actually implies that faculty and students have to use the same textbooks and reference materials (at least one book and a couple of references should be brought and used together in the classroom). By this, a class meeting will be consid-ered as a forum for sharing knowledge and experience between faculty and students. At least the class must become a forum for confirming students’ understanding of the agreed teaching materials with the understanding and experience of the faculty of the same material. It is in this respect that higher education institutions should be viewed differently from training or vocational institutions or other skills courses. Education and training should be distin-guished. In addition to the demanding aspects of technical skills, education focuses more on aspects of personality development, vision, reasoning, and thinking. In general, the materials organized in the syllabus may not be entirely explained by the lecturer. The syllabus is a learning map designed by faculties because of their experiences and insights. Lecturers will guide students to explore themselves the areas of the knowledge that have been mapped. The lecturers definitely know the materials in the syllabus but they should not be tempted to lec-turing the materials (imparting knowledge) in a traditional sense. Doing this is actually or

Figure 3. Reinforcement of Comprehension

Classtime

Classtime

Classtime

Time

Level ofunderstanding



substantively the same as robbing the right of students to enjoy learning. The function of lec-turers is basically to share important ideas with students not to impart knowledge.

Learning Experiences or Grades

The grades earned by students serve a dual function, as a measure of student’s success in completing courses and also as a means of evaluating the success of the courses themselves in changing the knowledge and personality of the students. In fact, the latter function is often neglected although the validity of the first function is dependent on the ability of the grades to reflect the significant changes in students’ knowledge through proper process of learning. In certain cases, grades are the indicator of student’s success in taking classes but it may not always be a measure of success in achieving the goals or objectives of courses in changing the knowledge, attitudes, reasoning, and personality of students. The validity of grades as a mea-sure of success must be considered with cautions.

For students who have a clear individual goals, of course, a grade is not a target but rather a logical consequence of what they do during the learning process. Therefore, a funda-mental question to the real students is whether they learn for grades or for meaningful know-ledge. The responsibility of lecturers and educational administrators is to assure that only students who have changed their knowledge and personality get good grades.Otherwise, the university only produces graduates with diploma or degree but the degree does not carry with it real changes in scholarly personality. The relationship between a grade and a learning pro-cess can be shown in the following diagram.

The question of learning control to be taken into account is which one is more important in the learning: the process or the grade? The decision on this matter will affect the atti-tudes and behavior of faculties and students in the teaching-learning process. If university administration allows a student in a course to obtain high grades without proper and good process, the course and its conduct actually have not made the student to learn anything except granting the grade. When students graduate without going through a proper learning process that really changes the students’ scholarly attitude, the university actually serve only as a sort of testing service institutions (educational testing services such as TOEFL). Worse yet, if the exams are not really valid measurement tools, the grades and the degree no longer reflect meaningful changes in behavior and knowledge acquisition. Diploma only serves to confirm that the student had ever lived as a student in a university. When the learning process is considered to be more fundamental than just grades (and this is in fact the services offered by the institution to the community), the control of the learning process should be a major concern. An agreement on how the teaching-learning process will be carried out needs to be communicated to students. Higher education has to create an image that the learning process offered is a process that requires prospective students to commit to it. Erroneous perception

grade &

diploma

learning processexam

Evaluation/

Figure 4. Learning Process and Grade

Higher Education

with

behavioral changes

assessment



or expectation of students regarding this process will cause the students to feel frustrated to undergo the process, especially if they brings with them wrong habits of learning in high school.

Concepts About Lecturers

It has been alluded earlier that in an ideal learning process lecturers should not define them-selves as the main and only source of knowledge. In an effective teaching-learning process, a faculty should be viewed as a course manager or strategist. The main sources of knowledge are of books, libraries, articles in magazines, research results, and other printed or audio-visual media (including, of course, faculty experiences). Again, professors are assigned to teach a course because they have ever gone through a certain learning process and have gained valuable learning experiences (including practical and research experiences). This fact needs to be communicated to those who will undergo the same learning process. Thus, stu-dents who will undergo the same process and experience will gain the same knowledge (or even expected more) more effectively without incurring unnecessary same mistakes.

So, the lecturer should be viewed as a class manager and a resource person of learning. In educational technology language, it is said that the lecturers position themselves as director, facilitator, motivator, and evaluator of learning process. Panel B of Figure 2 in essence depicts the actual role of professors as class managers and resource persons for the course. Lecturers establish the source of knowledge that must be learned independently by the student in the form of a syllabus or course of study, students undergo the learning process under the supervi-sion and control of the lecturers.

Independent Learning

It has been mentioned earlier that learning is actually an individual and continuing activities. In the eyes of students, the learning nowadays has not been viewed in general as a self-learn-ing process. This is demonstrated by the inability of students to express ideas and to find a problem or topic for writing their theses (skripsi) or other writings. I suspect that this is attributed to too much emphasis on doing rather than thinking or reasoning in the learning process from the first semester to the time when students are illegible for writing thesis. Learning activities in class focus much on mechanistic problem solving but much less on chal-lenging why they are doing so what the implications are. In other words, good reasoning is not the basis of understanding. Consequently, the development of reasoning ability is hampered. Even, in many cases, lecturers tend to isolate (not to discuss) research results or alternative ideas that are different (much less controversial) with what is taught or practiced for fear that the students will be confused in practice. In the field of accounting, for example, Sterling (1987) states that faculties tend to teach what is in fact practiced (the current state) rather than what should be practiced (the desired state). Meanwhile, faculties expect students to think creatively and critically to whatever are taught in class. In this contradictory situation that leads to the isolation of controversial issue, students will tend to optimize themselves to take for granted whatever is taught (to become an audiocopy machine). As a consequence, functional fixation on the false meaning of a lecture is ingrained in students’ mind. This situ-ation foster resistance to change bad learning habits on the part of students. Independent or self-motivated learning is often hindered because many elements of thinking and reasoning are taken over by the lecturer, both in the first year and subsequent years until graduation. Analogous to eating an apple, the lecturer chews the fruit until it is ready to be swallowed and students just swallow it. This kind of process is actually a stupefying process that is con-trary to sharpening and enlightening the mind. This situation is illustrated in Figure 5.



In the top panel of Figure 5, students who are used to ingesting the knowledge chewed by lecturers without problems and controversy (incidentally, lecturers are also pleased with this), suddenly in the late semester (the end of the seventh or eighth semester) students have to chew their own knowledge and propose a topic for their skripsi. Obviously, it can be imagined what would happen. Students are not able to identify an issue of their interest that is worth writing into skripsi. As a consequence, students have the mistaken impression that what is called an issue is description of book chapter that they never read during taking courses. The problem for a thesis is the problem of himself in studying the topic and not an academic or scholarly inquiry. As a result, many titles and contents of skripsi are nothing more than a summary of book chapters packaged in thesis format. Thus, the thesis is nothing more than a medium for learning a chapter in a textbook that the students have never read or studied. Had they studied well the chapter they would not have felt necessary to make the chapter into a thesis.

If this dysfunctional learning process becomes a pattern and perpetuates, independent learning will only be a slogan and will never manifest in the attitude and behavior of students. Unfortunately, devouring chewed knowledge is what is expected and preferred by most stu-dents. The results of lecturer evaluation form by students show that lecturers who score high in the evaluation are those who basically dictate the materials and enable students to produce neat lecture notes even though the notes read exactly like the content of a book that students never touch. Learning process is nothing more than transferring notes of the lecturer to notes of students (by way of audiocopy). Actually, this can be considered a robbery of learning excite-ment even though most students love to such a lecturer. Neusner (1984) shows how to evalu-ate lecturers appropriately while Mohanan (2003) characterize a high-quality (excellent)

Figure 5. Independent Learning

Ratio of Independence

by students

by students

by instructors

by instructors

1 2 3 4 5 6Semester

1 2 3 4 5 6

(thinking & reasoning)

Ratio of Independece(thinking & reasoning)

Semester



faculty.7 But if students have read and understood (although not fully) the materials that are described in detailed and systematic way by lecturer, students may think that what are described do not have added value and in this situation students can demand more from and challenge the lecturer. In turn, this will force faculties to expand and update constantly their competence and knowledge. Thus knowledge will also progress and higher education institu-tions will function not only to disseminate knowledge but also advance knowledge. This is pre-cisely what distinguishes the university from merely skills training courses or centers.

Independent learning is the result of a process of learning and the learning experience itself. If the learning process does not give the experience that learning is an individual activ-ity, the independent behavior in learning will remain a slogan. The problem is when the expe-rience of independence should be introduced to students? When students must have a correct impression that learning in university is very different from that in high school or training courses?

Independent learning should start from the very beginning students enter university. This is possible if the same books or other resources are used by faculties and students, and they should be used in class. Again, independent learning behavior will automatically become a norm if class time is not filled with things that students are actually able to do their own with minimal instructions from the lecturers. Meanwhile, students must have confidence that the lecturers are not the primary source of knowledge. The sources of knowledge are available in various forms. Self-reliance learning is an attitude that is formed due to the careful design of the learning process. Independent attitude/behavior in learning is deliberately created not something that comes about by itself.

To assure that independence learning develops, the tasks of lecturers are directing, moti-vating, facilitating, and evaluating the self-learning process of students so that class meetings will be occupied with things that are conceptual in nature. class meetings will serve as a forum for confirmation students’ understanding of the subjects and of assignments done outside the classes. On the other hand, students are required to do their own things that they are actually able to do with adequate guidelines from lecturers. Thus, faculties will be able to convey wis-doms than technical problems so that the class meeting will be valuable, meaningful, challeng-ing, and inspiring to students.

Concept of Possessing Books

Books (printed or electronic) and other information resources are indispensable things in learning. Books are sources of knowledge. Students are often unaware that owning books is not the same thing as owning papers with printed letters and pictures.8 Interestingly, book acquisition or collection is not part of our culture. Unwillingness of students to acquire books may be due to the fact that lecturers and lectures are the main sources of knowledge. Some people may even think that compulsory acquisition of books is deemed to be unethical from economic justice perspective for reason of unequal economic ability to buy.

From the lecturer’s point of view, an overwhelming question that may arise is: “If stu-dents already hold books that are clear and good in describing materials (much less in Indone-sian), what should I teach then?” To cope with this discomfort, lecturers often put students in a disadvantaged position by recommending them to use English textbooks in spite of the avail-

7Jacob Neusner, How to Grade Your Professors and Other Unexpected Advice (Boston: Beacon Press, 1984). K. P.Mohanan, “Assessing Quality of Teaching in Higher Education,” www.cdtl.nus.edu.sg/publications/assess. The authoris grateful to Pak Hari (H. C. Yohanes) for providing the latter material.

8In this instant, possession of books does not necessarily mean purchasing books but using books during takinga particular course and bringing them to class.



ability of adequate Indonesian textbooks. The reason that is mostly advanced by lecturers (or even the institution) is that students should master the content and at the same time master written and spoken English language. Apparently, this policy is based on the idea of globaliza-tion. Consequently, due to the fact the average proficiency of students to understand English is inadequate, many students make every effort to find a translation or translators collectively and bring English books in the classroom for the sake of formality or compliance to the rules. This should not happen at the graduate programs on the assumption that graduate students are already fluent in English (at least passively) to read English resources at the graduate level and depth.

If the assumption of English proficiency is not met, forcing students to use English text-books can be dysfunctional; students have difficulty in understanding the materials while their English does not improve significantly or even get worse. Probably the best approach is to use Indonesian textbooks as the main required books and English books as supporting ref-erences. Of course, from the point of view of curriculum design, the choice of acceptable Indo-nesian textbooks is a strategic decisions (and in some cases also political) of institutional department (study program).

Books are a source of knowledge that should be read, marked, jotted down with notes, attached with articles, and "made into dialogue" so that the books will be part of one’s person-ality. If a purchased book stays clean and never invited to a dialogue then its owner actually has only papers with lines and letters and if, for some reason or other, the book is lost then there would be no real sense of regret because the same book can be acquired from a book-store immediately. The case would be different if the book has been read and understood and given special markings on the parts that are important and interesting, so were the book lost then the owner would feel as if loosing a loved one or undergo broken hearted.

Language Proficiency

Observations show that the reasoning is not a basis for teaching albeit capabilities of students to express ideas well in writing or speaking are strongly influenced by the power of reason and mastery of language especially Indonesian. In this case, Nasution (2000) asserts:

... semua mahasiswa perlu menguasai sekurang-kurangnya satu bahasa asing modern di samping bahasa Indonesia. Bukan ‘bahasa Indonesia yang baik dan benar’ karena bahasa Indonesia harus baik dan benar. Kalau tidak baik dan benar, maka bahasa itu tidak boleh disebut bahasa Indonesia. Jadi penguasaan berbahasa bukan saja wajib bagi mahasiswa ilmu sastra, melainkan juga bagi mahasiswa sains alam dan matematika (hlm. 23).(... All students need to master at least one modern foreign language in addition to Indonesian. Not ’Indonesian that is good and right’ but Indonesian that should be good and correct. If it is not good and correct, then that language should not be called Indonesian. So mastery of language is not only a must for students of literature, but also for students of natural science and mathematics.)

Academic, scholarly, and professional writings call for precision of the language because the work must be disseminated to parties that do not directly meet in person with the author both at the time of writing or publication or in years after that. Accuracy of language guaran-tees that the meaning to be conveyed by the writer will be exactly the same as captured by readers without being bound by time. The same interpretation of meaning will be achieved if the writer and the reader has the same mastery of the rules and level of the language used. Moreover, scientific and professional communication will be more effective if the involving parties have the same comprehensiveness in terms of technical vocabulary (lexicon). Charac-teristics of scientific/academic language is the power of language to express complex ideas and thoughts clearly and accurately. Accuracy of ideas and thoughts can only be achieved if the



structure of the language (including vocabulary and rules of terminology derivation) has been advanced and established. Suriasumantri (1999) highlights the importance of language skills for scientific and academic purposes as follows:9

Kemampuan berbahasa yang baik dan benar merupakan persyaratan mutlak untuk melaku-kan kegiatan ilmiah sebab bahasa merupakan sarana komunikasi ilmiah yang pokok. Tanpa penguasaan tata bahasa dan kosa kata yang baik akan sukar bagi seorang ilmuwan untuk mengkomunikasikan gagasannya kepada pihak lain. Dengan bahasa selaku alat komunikasi, kita bukan saja menyampaikan informasi tetapi juga argumentasi, di mana kejelasan kosa kata dan logika tata bahasa merupakan persyaratan utama (hlm. 14).

(Mastery of good and correct language is an absolute requirement for the conduct of scientific activities because language is the principal means of scientific communication. Without good mastery of grammar and good vocabulary, it will be difficult for a scientist to communicate their ideas to others. With language as a means of communication, we not only convey information but also argumentation, where the clarity of vocabulary and grammatical logic are major require-ments.)

Suriasumantri further argues that language is a means to express feelings, attitudes, and thoughts. Mind and reasoning are features that distinguish human language from other crea-tures. Furthermore, it is concluded that aspects of reasoning has not developed as quickly as cultural aspects. Likewise, the ability to use Indonesian language as a means of scientific com-munication has been very inadequate especially in written communication. This may be due to language teaching that ignores the important aspects of reasoning. Suwardjono (1991a) shows the importance of language in developing accounting terms.

Suwardjono asserts that the ability to speak and use language as a means of expression of ideas is not an innate skill (gifted) but rather a skill that must be learned with full awareness and enthusiasm. Unfortunately, many students only feel to be able to speak (Indonesian par-ticular) not because consciously learn it but get it naturally. If one wants to achieve and enjoy the thoughts and ideas of science, the language that is naturally acquired should be enhanced to scientific (professional) language.

For daily conversation and writing in general public, naturally acquired language is suffi-cient but the level of its sophistication is actually on the lowest level. Common features of nat-ural language is its simple structures (often incomplete and grammatically incorrect) and a very limited vocabulary. The effectiveness of communication is much determined by contex-tual (colloquial) and emotional expressions accompanied by gestures (body language). The language is sufficient to express things that are concrete or real events in daily life conversa-tion. However, natural language is often incapable or inadequate to express scientific, aca-demic, abstract, or conceptual ideas that are often hard to find their analogy or physical examples in real life. To express these ideas, more sophisticated grammar and vocabulary are necessary. The features of scientific or academic language are its ability to distinguish an idea or concept that is actually different from other idea or concept and its standard structure and accurate vocabulary. With these feature, an idea can be expressed thoroughly and precisely without giving rise to error of meaning or misinterpretation for the recipients.

When I was studying abroad, I met an American student (a good friend of mine) who was carrying a thick and big American Heritage Dictionary. I asked him why he was still carrying any dictionary yet he was able to speak English. With a tone that is high enough (maybe he thought that I asked a stupid question, and he wanted to give lessons to me), he replied: "Do you think I knew all the English words?" The lesson to be learned from this experience is that

9Emphasis is from the author.



someone (especially faculties and students) have to learn their own language (Indonesian) more than what is obtained naturally (including language obtained by monkey see monkey do).

Feeling to be able to speak Indonesian, most people do not feel the need to learn Indone-sian and have or open an Indonesian dictionary (e.g. Kamus Besar Bahasa Indonesia). As a result, people often find it strange to hear a new Indonesian word than hear a new English word that is totally unfamiliar. Curiously enough, if one encounters a new and unfamiliar English word, he is consciously and eagerly to find the meaning by looking it up in the dictio-nary and it never crosses his mind that it is a strange word. However, when he hears an unfa-miliar Indonesian word, he suddenly feels it is not his language, and will react by saying "What does this mean, it’s really weird?" and never make any effort to figure out its meaning let alone open the dictionary and use it appropriately. This attitude actually indicates that someone feels being sufficient and satisfied with his ordinary or natural language.

Students often complain that they find difficult to understand a book written in Indone-sian. There are various reasons that can explain such difficulty. First, the books deals with concrete and simple topics but is written in a inadequate language so as to be difficult to understand especially if the reader only uses his natural language structure and he does not know that the structure of the language in the book is wrong and it cannot be easily under-stood. Second, students read a book that requires deep thinking and pondering but they read it as if they read a news in a newspaper and thereby understanding is not obtained. Third, this is often the case, the book is intended to describe some knowledge that requires complex and conceptual structure of language and sophisticated vocabulary and it is written elaboratively in a very standard language but students using natural language structure to understand. Books with a high level language is read by the general daily level language. Unfortunately, many people blame that a book is difficult to understand when in fact people do not have the necessary language skills and sufficient reasoning power to understand. Instead of advancing the mastery of language, students demand that the language of the text book should be down to earth.

Indeed, language does have levels in terms of the breadth of specialized vocabulary, idiom, and dialect. English reading books (are often labelled a description of the level language used on the basis of specialized vocabulary and language structural complexity. Figure 6 depicts the level of language used in a wide range of English-language readings.

Figure 6. Level of Language

Level Usage Examples

30,000 words or over Shakespearean books, philosophy

20,000 words High literature, several classical books

10.000 words Social science books

5,000 words Natural science and scientific books

4,000 words Popular magazines, newspapers, other popular reading

2.000 words Simplified story books

1000 words Elementary school books and stories

500 words Shopping, billboard, community service informa-tion.

Even mutes can talk Symbolic language, gestures, signals



Therefore, if a student wants to enjoy a world of broad and high knowledge, they must improve language skills (both Indonesian and English). Students must have the language mastery to an acceptable level to be able to absorb complex and conceptual ideas and knowl-edge. The language of students should upsoar to the sky. Students should increase the level of language rather than demands scientific language to be downgraded (into English slang). If only technical skills and general communication are the goals, natural language is more than enough.

To score your current level of English you master (at least from the vocabulary level), try to read a list of words included in the Oxford 3000 TM Vocabulary Trainer that is pub-lished in the Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary, 7th Edition (pp. R100-R113). If you already know almost every sense of the word and its use, it means you are at least at the level of 3000-word. However, if you do not know more than 150 words (5%), you may be at a level below the 3000-word.

Figure 7 depicts the importance of mastering the language (Indonesian and English) if we want to communicate and learn in two languages equally well at a high level. It should be clear that, as a bilingual speakers, we will be able to explore the foreign fields of knowledge fully if we have a good and high command in both the source and target languages..

Do students need to be able to speak a foreign language (English)? If students want to expand their knowledge horizon, foreign language is clearly an indispensable skill. Of course in this case, it is meant to be high level (or academic at least) instead of the common or laymen language. The scarcity of scholarly books in Indonesian today necessitates students to master foreign languages (especially English at a high level). Courses and resources in university (which are not the subject of English teaching but in English), though helpful to some extent, are not a means to learn English. English should be learned specifically and seriously through particular lessons and trainings. The thing to note is that people can master a foreign lan-guage well (including reading the text books) if they master their own language (Indonesian) as well. This applies particulary to those who during their life-time have never lived in an English-speaking community and spoken English in full. How could people be expected to learn English which has a standard and sophisticated structure if they themselves have not mastered the standard and actually-advanced Indonesian language? Many people complain

Figure 7. Significance of Language Mastery

Konwledge:Thinking, doing, feeling

domains transformed into science, technology, and

art works.

Foreign(source language)

Which can be expressed by source language

Which can be captured by translation or by mastery of source

language

Translation

Mastery of foreign language at adequate

level

Richness of grammar, vocabulary, styles, idi-

oms, expressions

National(target language)

Richness of grammar, vocabulary, styles, idi-

oms, expressions.

Can it be effectively learned (100%) by undergraduate stu-

dents or below without language barrier?

Konwledge:Thinking, doing, feeling

domains transformed into science, technology, and

art works.



and find it difficult to learn English but they forget that the difficulties are attributed to their inadequate Indonesian grammar and vocabulary, especially written language.

Summary

Studying at university is a strategic choice to achieve one’s individual goals. The spirit, learn-ing style, and student attitudes toward learning is determined by the awareness of the individ-ual goals and clear educational institution’s goals. Alignment of goals will result in enjoyable and exciting learning atmosphere without leaving the university scientific vigor and rigor.Lecturers and lectures are not the main and only sources of knowledge. Therefore, the mean-ing and perception of lecture (class meeting) should be redefined and introduced early and properly to the entering students. Lecture is redefined as a forum for confirmation of stu-dents’ understanding from the process of self-learning. To support such an effective teaching and learning process, faculties and students should refer to and hold the same books or other resources. Controlling the learning process should be more important than the results or grades of exam or test. If the learning process is well organized and conducted, the grades are just a logical consequence of the process. If the learning process is not controlled properly, the grades will not reflect any changes in the behavior even though the grades may enhanced attributes of a person. If this is the case, then higher education serves only as an institutional testing services (testing service institute) not a real higher education institutions.

Possession of books is not the same as possession of papers printed with letters and lines. The books should be treated as a true friend or lover; an intense dialogue should be made to the books. Advanced language skill is crucial to understand the complex and conceptual knowledge. High scientific and literary works can not simply be understood only by a natu-rally acquired language. Adequate mastery of language (both structure and vocabulary) also helps a person to be able to express ideas and feelings or to describe theoretical and practical issues accurately and effectively.

Many roads lead to personal success. University at least provides a way and meaningful contribution toward an individual as well as societal success. The behavior of university stu-dents will color a variety of individual personal success and also national or even global suc-cess.

Under the current conditions of a learning culture that have already deviated from the desired ideal learning objectives, the task of higher educations is to change radically the devi-ant culture. Erroneous impression about the meaning of lecture and learning can be rectified if universities are willing to create a new image about the meaning of learning through the radical changes in learning processes. It is improper to adapt to the false expectation of stu-dents or society. Higher education should be able to produce graduates who can change society for the better life. The following fundamental question posed by Hall and Cannon (1975) should be contemplated in the administration of higher education:

Should a university course be devised to help a student to fit into society or to encour-age a student to change society?

Thus, the function of higher education is to provide not only skills that match the needs of labor market (link and match) but also insight, vision, wisdom, innovativeness, quick learn-ing of situation, critical reasoning power, and scholarly personality. Universities have enough bargaining power and stronger force to embark radical changes than the primary and second-ary schools because of the inherent flexibility, freedom, and autonomy. Universities should not wait the reformation in pre-university education to make necessary radical changes. Primary



and secondary schools are too bureaucratic to make changes, especially in the field of learning strategies that are part of the curriculum.

References

Buchori, Mochtar. “Peran Pendidikan dalam Budaya Politik di Indonesia,” Basis (Juli-Agustus 2000).Christianto, Arif Budi. “Kurikulum Berbasis Kompetensi yang Membingungkan,” Kompas, 17 Januari 2003. Hall, William C. dan Robert Cannon. University Teaching. Adelaide: ACUE, The University of Adelaide, 1975.Heryanto, Ariel. “Industrialisasi Pendidikan,” Basis (Juli-Agustus 2000). Kompas. “Catatan Pendidikan Akhir Tahun,” 27-31 Desember 2002.__________. “Pendidikan Nasional, Ibarat Tas yang Tak Bisa Dibuka,” 21 Desember 2002.Mohanan, K. P., “Assessing Quality of Teaching in Higher Education,” www.cdtl.nus.edu.sg/publications/assess. Nasoetion, Andi Hakim. “Ilmu untuk Kehidupan dan Penghidupan,” Basis (Juli-Agustus 2000).Neusner, Jacob. How to Grade Your Professors and Other Unexpected Advice. Boston: Beacon Press, 1984.Sindhunata. “Pendidikan Hanya Menghasilkan Air Mata,” Basis (Juli-Agustus 2000).Sterling, Robert S. "Accounting Research, Education and Practices," dalam Schroeder, Richard G. et al. Accounting

Theory: Text and Reading. New York: John Wiley and Sons, 1987.Soemarwoto, Otto. “Potret Buruk Perguruan Tinggi Kita,” Kompas (31 Juli 2000).Sriyanto, HJ. “Pudarnya Citra Profesi Guru,” Kompas, 7 Januari 2003.Suriasumantri, Jujun S. “Hakikat Dasar Keilmuan,” dalam M. Thoyibi (editor), Filsafat Ilmu dan Perkembangannya

(Surakarta: Muhammadiyah University Press, 1999).Susilo, M. Joko. Pembodohan Siswa Tersistematis. Yogyakarta: Pinus Book Publisher, 2007.Suwardjono. “Aspek Kebahasaan Dalam Pengembangan Akuntansi di Indonesia,” Jurnal Akuntansi & Manajemen

STIE YKPN (November 1991a).__________. “Perilaku Belajar di Perguruan Tinggi,” Jurnal Akuntansi & Manajemen STIE YKPN (Maret 1991b).Tanje, Sixtus. “Guru versus KBK,” Kompas, 17 Januari 2003.

Reflection (an assignment to students)

Make a one-page response (not a summary) in the form of comment, self-defense, self-evaluation or criticism of ideas in this article.

This response is useful for discussion preparation.

Comments and criticisms are directed to answer (but not limited to) questions among others:

1. Does the behavior described in the article reflect you or your commu-nity? Why do you think so?

2. Can your learning behavior change radically (at least in the courses you are now taking)?

3. What are ideas in this article that is most disturbing or perplexing your mind?

4. What kind of lecturer do you like most? (Before and after reading this article. Does it make any difference?)

Documents

Learning Paradigm in Higher Education