Have you heard about thematic learning? I’ve heard about that twice. First I heard that from the elementary teacher in SDN BENHIL Jakarta Selatan when I was in school observation there. The second time is today, September 27th 2011 in principle of effective teaching and assessment (PETA) course meeting. My PETA lecturer—Ms Ine explained about that by using video. The video showed learning and teaching activities using thematic learning method. After watching the video we discussed about that in class. Here, I’d like to share my opinion about thematic learning, not explain what thematic learning is.
I think thematic learning can be effective and also ineffective depends on the learning objectives that we want to reach. If we want students to understand deeply about the certain material, I think thematic learning is not really appropriate to be used. But if we want to make an integrated learning for the students, I guess thematic learning is a good choice. Let me make a metaphor, thematic learning is like our body. All of materials are related and influenced each other and can’t be separated. But for me, integrated learning and also thematic learning is not easy to be done in class. The teacher should have a high creative and critical thinking to make thematic learning meaningful and not monotone.Yeah, that is the important capability that should be possessed by teacher indeed. Ms Ine explained about that briefly, but I didn’t have sufficient time to write the term that Ms Ine wrote in her slide. Definitely, a teacher should know not only how to share the knowledge but also in which level his/her students are. So, the teacher can consider what material and what method that appropriate to be taught to the students. I think, that is overall briefly explanation that I got.
Besides that, there are steps that should be passed through by teacher when they want to teach. First is about preparing, like arranging a lesson plan, deciding the method, making a learning objective and so on. If I’m not wrong Ms Ine said that preparation is the most important step in teaching. The second step is teaching itself. The last step is assessment. There are many ways to assess students, but we should know which one the appropriate way to assess certain capability.
I have learnt the basic of those steps in senior high school in Ilmu Mendidik and Psychology courses. I also have practiced those steps three times (two weeks each time) in teaching practice test which is mostly implemented in outlying place of Garut. That was so tiring for me especially in making a “RPP” (like a lesson plan) step. I had to think and write (because in that place didn’t exist any computer) the lesson plan, one lesson plan for one meeting. Can you imagine how many lesson plans that I wrote? Huh… it seems to be a teacher is not easy, guys... but that shouldn’t be an obstacle for us to sharpen others’ mind and make the world brighter than before. Yeah, fighting!!!
