Seminar Internasional "National Character Building and Sustainable Development"

Tanggal: Jumat 27 May 2011

Perkuliahan kapita selekta diakhiri dengan mengikuti seminar internasional yang dilaksanakan di Auditorium Gedung Utama lantai 3, Kampus 1 Universitas Tarumanagara. Acara yang berlangsung sejak pukul 10.00 hingga 15.30 ini dapat terlaksana atas kerjasama dengan UPF (Universal Peace Federation) dan ASPIKOM (Asosiasi Pendidikan Tinggi Ilmu Komunikasi). Topik kali ini berhubungan dengan pendidikan yang banyak membahas tentang pendidikan baik di dalam lingkup nasional maupun perbandingan teknik pengajaran Indonesia dengan negara lain. Seminar ini dihadiri oleh beberapa pembicara baik dari Indonesia maupun dari luar Indonesia. 

Seminar dibagi menjadi 6 sesi pembicara, yaitu:
1. Pembicara pertama dibawakan oleh Bapak Prof. Dr R. Agus Sartono, M.B.A, Deputy Minister for Education and Religion of the Coordinating Ministry for People's Welfare.  
2.  Dr. Mee Young Choi (ESD Team Leader / Programme Specialist in Education UNESCO Office in Jakarta) mengenai Pembelajaran untuk Perubahan: Pendidikan untuk Pembangunan Berkelanjutan.
3. Mrs. Ursula McLackland (UPF) mengenai Pendidikan Karakter Sebagai Pondasi untuk Kepemimpinan yang Baik, Komunikasi, dan Pembangunan Bangsa.
4. Mrs. Multamia RMT Lauder (UI)  mengenai Model Pengembangan Kepribadian Terintegrasi.
5. Mr. David McLackland (UPF) mengenai Inisiatif Pendidikan Karakter.
6. Mrs. Suzy S. Azeharie (Dosen Fikom Untar) mengenai Pentingnya Konstruksi dari Kepemimpinan Melalui Perspektif Gender.

National Character Building and Sustainable Development

Sumber: http://febrianhadi.wordpress.com/ diakses pada Senin 30 May 2011

  

Character education is the intentional effort to develop in young people core ethical and performance values that are widely affirmed accross all cultures.

According to Dr. Thomas Lickona’s definition, character education is the deliberate effort to help people understand, care about, and act upon core ethical values. Dr. Lickona, in his book, Educating for Character, said that “When we think about the kind of character we want for our children, it’s clear that we want them to be able to judge what is right, care deeply about what is right, and then do what they believe to be right—even in the face of pressure from without and temptation from within.” 

Character education must include all stakeholders in a school community and must permeate school climate and curriculum. Concepts that now and in the past have fallen under this term include social and emotional learning, moral reasoning/cognitive development, life skills education, health education, violence prevention, critical thinking, ethical reasoning, and conflict resolution and mediation.

Core Values - Character

1. Core ethical values remain foundational in a life of character. Core ethical values are caring, honesty, fairness, responsibility and respect for self and others.

Sumber: http://thefinancialbrand.com/4437/credit-union-core-values/ diakses pada Senin 30 May 2011

2. Character education must also develop student's performance values such as effort, diligence, and perseverance in order to promote academic learning, foster an ethic of excellence, and develop the skills needed to act upon ethical values.

Program Pembangunan Pendidikan 2011 - 2014

Rencana program pembangunan pendidikan ini diharapkan dapat memajukan pendidikan di Indonesia untuk mendapatkan generasi yang lebih berkualitas, bermutu dan kompetitif di bidangnya untuk dapat memajukan bangsa dan negara. 

5 program yang diprioritaskan yaitu: 
1. Peningkatan akses dan mutu PAUD  (Pendidikan Anak Usia Dini)
2. Penuntasan Pendidikan dasar sembilan Tahun 
3. Percepatan peningkatan kesejahteraan kualifikasi akademik guru ke S1/D4, sertifikasi dan rintisan pendidikan profesi guru
4. Peningkatan akses dan relevansi mutu pendidikan menengah dan vokasi
5. Peningkatan jumlah dosen S3 dan daya saing pendidikan tinggi


School based Education Character

Objectives

• To develop the cognitive, emotional, and behavioral aspects of their character, students need many and varied opportunities to grapple with real-life challenges.
• Through repeated experiences and reflection, student develop appreciation for and commitment to acting on their ethical and performance values.
• Student learn to care about core values by developing empathy skills, forming caring relationships, developing good work habits, taking on meaningful responsibilities, helping to create community, and reflecting in life experience
• They develop an increasingly refined understanding of the core ethical and performance values, a deeper commitment to living according to those values, and stronger capacity and tendency to behave in accordance with them.
• To develop the cognitive, emotional, and behavioral aspects of their character, students need many and varied opportunities to grapple with real-life challenges.
• Through repeated experiences and reflection, students develop appreciation for and commitment to acting on their ethical and performance values.

The Role of School Teacher

• Students are better able to do their best work and gain greater autonomy, competence, and self-confidence when teachers promote moral and performance values such as academic integrity, intellectual curiosity, critical thinking and diligence.
• Teachers should highlight models of excellence and ethics and promote social-emotional skills such as self awareness and self-management and ethical decision-making.

"Good teachers are those who know how little they know. Bad teachers are those who think they know more than they don't know."
- R. Verdi -

Basic Principles

 
1. Wisdom is good judgment that enables us to make reasoned decisions that are both good for us and good for others.
2. Justice means respecting the right of all persons, including ourselves, it includes honesty, respect, responsibility and tolerance.
3. Love is the willingness to sacrifice for the sake of other - empathy, compassion, kindness, generosity, service, loyalty, patriotism, and forgiveness.
4. Intergrity is adhering to moral principle, keeping our word, and standing up for what we believe. Integrity is different from honesty, which tells the truth to others, integrity is telling the truth to oneself.
5. Positive hardwork - enthusiasm, flexibility, initiative, diligence, goal-setting, and sense of humor.


Education for Sustainable Development

Education plays crucial role for:
(a) poverty reduction
(b) health 
(c) environmental sustainability.
The biggest challenge is how to ensure that the future generation are truly care on environment sustainability and maintain strong character.

The United Nations Decade of Education for Sustainable Development (2005-2014)

Sumber: http://www.ias.unu.edu/images/articles/logo_DD.jpg // diakses pada Senin 30 May 2011

 
(In 2000)
 From the Johannes Summit, the DESD was proclaimed by the UN General Assembly as the ten year period education action beginning on 1 January 2005

(In 2003)
UNESCO was desaignated as a key partner in defining and promoting the environmental perspectives of ESD and coordinating environmental lobbying.

(In 2005)
DESD seeks to integrate of sustainable development into all aspects of education and learning, in order to address the social, economic, cultural and environmental problems we face in the 21st century.

 "Education for Sustuinable Development (ESD) is a learning process (or approach to teaching) based on the ideals and principles that underlie sustainability and is concerned with all levels and types of learning to provide quality education and foster sustainable human development - learning to know, learning to be, learning to live together, learning to do and learning to transform oneself and society." (UNESCO)

Sumber: http://www.unesco.org.uk/education_for_sustainable_development // diakses pada Senin 30 May 2011

National Sustainable Development Priorities in Five Cluster Countries
 
Brunei Darussalam
* Solid waste management
* Environmental awareness
* Energy efficiency and conservation
* Health (Anti Smoking)
* Food Security

Malaysia
* Sustainable agriculture
* De-forestation
* School dropouts
* Unemployment
* Nation building (national solidarity)

Indonesia
* Energy efficiency
* Disaster preparedness
* literacy
* Vocational education training
* Intercultural understanding

Phillipines
* Climate change
* Literacy
* Good governance
* Powery
* Peace and human development

Timor Leste
* Literacy
* Unemployment
* Limited opportunities/skills
* Food security
* Governance (very centralized)
* Regional Disparities (urban-rural, upland, lowland)

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Sumber: http://www.dapunta.com/merumuskan-standar-kelulusan-yang-manusiawi/4959.html // diakses pada Senin 30 May 2011

Melalui seminar kemarin, saya mencoba untuk mengambil kesimpulan bahwa masa depan bangsa berada di tangan para generasi muda sekarang, sehingga nilai kepribadian yang dianut oleh generasi muda berperan sangat signifikan. Generasi muda diharapkan tidak hanya cerdas secara akademik melainkan juga harus memiliki kecerdasan moral, berkarakter positif dan berjiwa kepemimpinan untuk dapat memimpin bangsa di kemudian hari. 

Sumber: http://hardiknas-visiindrajaya.blogspot.com/2011/04/all-about-education.html // diakses pada Senin 30 May 2011

Teknik pengajaran di Indonesia memiliki perbedaan dengan negara Barat dimana di Indonesia, pembelajaran masih lebih didominasi oleh guru. Diperlukan keaktifan dan partisipasi siswa  untuk  menghasilkan siswa dengan pemikiran kritis, logis, argumentatif dan berani mengungkapkan pandangannya sendiri.  

Sumber daya manusia yang kita miliki sangatlah banyak dan berlimpah tapi nyatanya banyak diantara mereka yang tidak memiliki kesempatan mengecap pendidikan. Bagi sebagian besar lainnya yang beruntung mendapat pendidikan ternyata memiliki cacat cela dalam kepribadian. Moral yang baik tanpa didukung kecerdasan tidak akan menciptakan sesuatu yang besar begitu pula  dengan kecerdasan akademik tanpa didukung moral yang baik berujung pada kehancuran. Karena itulah pendidikan pengembangan kepribadian mulai digencarkan demi mendapatkan sebuah loncatan untuk mengejar ketinggalan. 


Pendidikan pengembangan karakter dapat dimulai dari mana saja, bahkan dari yang paling kecil dan dianggap sepele sekalipun yaitu keluarga. Sekolah, universitas dan institusi pendidikan diharapkan juga dapat melihat dan menaruh perhatian lebih pada permasalahan tersebut. 


Seminar ini diharapkan dapat menjadi pembelajaran bagi kita semua dalam membangun dan memajukan bangsa dan negara kita yang masa depannya semakin tidak menentu. Meminjam  kalimat dari John Dewey, Education is not preparation for life; education is life itself. 
Biarlah bangsa ini boleh terus maju dan ditumbuhi oleh generasi pendatang yang lebih analitis dan kritis! :)

Referensi:

http://www.goodcharacter.com/Article_4.html  

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Character_education 
http://www.character.org/performancevalues2