Train People to Sustain, Can We?

Recent data from National Geographic (Jan 2011), the population of people around the world will reach 7 billion (!) by the end of this year, and this fantastic number will still be increase along the year. Almost every nation face problem due to this explosion. Some of them can overcome the problems and attain the happiness for the citizens, either from economy, health, or the other aspects. Meanwhile, the other parts of the world can't do it--most countries in Africa and a little part of Asia.

What will happen then?

It's not exaggerated: WAR! Yes, hunger and poverty occurred in underdeveloped countries
at one time may happened in developing, or even developed countries if they can't preserve the nature. The supply of food will not be sufficient for 7, 8, 0r 10 billions people in years later. Eventually, those countries will fight for food, and BOOM! war happened.

What can Environmental Education (EE) do to solve the problem?

In my opinion, EE can not only solve, but also avoid that. When we learn about EE, we must learn also about ESD (Education for Sustainable Development). ESD can't be separated with EE since they are interrelated. EE is a part of ESD while the concept of ESD itself, actually developed from environmental issues as (partially) mentioned above. Bizarre things happened on our nature since the recent decades made some experts thought, there must be something wrong with our earth. After examined the problems faced by the world, they compose the concept of ESD, which cover many aspects. Climate change, human right, gender balance, racial issues, health, and economy are just some of the aspects of ESD. The great thing is, all of them can be covered through one key: education for all.

Why must be education? We know that education is the most important key in changing the world. Through education, we can change people thinking way and their behavior into a better ones. However, the application of ESD in school doesn't mean teachers should change all of the syllabus and materials. They need to infuse the concepts of ESD and its aspects to the material, in order to prepare students to face the real problems around them, and create a sustainable future.

The good news is teachers and educators in Indonesia begin to give more care on the application ESD in school. One of the applications is Adiwiyata program, which has goal to make school as a good place to start a change in gaining awareness to save our earth sustainably. Schools that want to be an Adiwiyata school have to fulfill some requirements, such as the development of school policy that give attention in environment and culture issues, the development of environment-based curriculum, and the maintenance of supporting elements in school.

However, not all teachers know the essence of ESD that they just think about environmental education--whereas actually, it's just a little part of ESD huge coverage. Even there are still some schools that think Adiwiyata program is just a certificate, without caring about the sustainable development. Again, it's one of our job as the next generation of teacher to continue the struggle, to train and educate people to build a sustainable future. Can we do it? Of course, if we believe that we can and invest some efforts to realize it. I think, learning deeper about Environmental Education is one of the best investment. ^^d

Language Learning Should be Flexible

I believe that language is so flexible, that the way we learn it can be done as flexible as well. I found the proof of my belief after doing microteaching simulation in LTM class with my group and looking at other groups’ performance. When we teach writing, for example, we can also put some activities supporting speaking, or even listening skills. I use the example from my own group performance. At the beginning, we do a storytelling—which is a typical speaking activity—as an elicitation. Later on, after having “our students” listen to the story, we can easily help them to identify the stages of the story—which is a narrative story—such as what happened at the beginning, when the problem raised and solved, etc. yes, I prefer this way to tell them directly the generic structure and the language features. I think, by doing this, students are encouraged to think and find the pattern by themselves. It hoped that the concept will remain longer in their mind.

I also believe that the best method in teaching writing is by using “process approach” since I’ve found many facts say that everything instant will not give a good impact. So does writing. By steps I learnt from last Bahasa Indonesia class (which are shown interestingly below), I hope students will have more will to write well.

By these steps also, I want they know that ideas for a story can come from everywhere, even from a story that is seen from different perspective. Here, I want to tell them that language learning should be fun. We can be anyone when we write, right? Moreover, if we give them opportunities to read the story and act it out. I think, these steps can gain their intrinsic motivation and confidence, so they will dare to take risks in writing, as the principles proposed by Brown (2007).

Well, even though all performance of each group seemed good, there are some weaknesses I found repeatedly done. Some of us just put some interesting activities without considering the relation with the material they deliver. It could be nice for students yet confusing; they may asked, “What are these games for?” Actually, I don’t bother what kind of game they used as long as it was related to the subject and they tell students the connection or the objective of the game.

Another weakness is misusing of a certain term improperly. For instance, one of the groups taught speaking but they tended to emphasize the generic structure of a text. Although I believe that language learning should be flexible, I don’t see any sense on that. Maybe they could mention it at a glance, but they don’t need to elaborate on each step since it’s more suitable to be done in writing class. Regardless all those weaknesses, I’m really proud with my lecturers and my friends who can deliver a material in a fun yet understandable way. I wonder how happy their students will be having them as the teacher. J