Selasa, 24 September 2013

05.53 - No comments

Cupid dan Piskhe (Part 1)


Oleh Zuraida

Piskhe bukanlah perempuan tercantik saat itu, dia juga tidak pernah merasa menjadi perempuan tercantik. Ada Aphrodite yang merupakan dewi sekaligus perempuan tercantik. Namun Piskhe adalah salah satu perempuan terbaik, perempuan yang setia, karena kebaikan hatinya, cantiknya mampu terpancar dan membuat orang-orang berpaling dari Aphrodite. Pada saat itu, tentu saja, Aphrodite yang merupakan dewi kecantikan, perempuan tercantik pada masa itu merasa sangat cemburu pada Piskhe. Piskhe, perempuan biasa yang merupakan putri ketiga dari seorang raja, disembah sebagai dewi kecantikan oleh rakyat di daerahnya. Rakyatnya berpaling dari Aphrodite. Maka, untuk membalas piskhe, Aphrodite memerintahkan anaknya yang bernama Cupid (Eros) untuk member pelajaran kepada Piskhe. Aprodhit ingin agar Piskhe jatuh cinta kepada lelaki terjelek di dunia.
Cupid telah terbiasa melaksanakan perintah seperti itu dari ibunya. Baginya perkara yang sangat gampang untuk membuat seseorang jatuh cinta terhadap siapa saja apabila terkena panah asmaranya. Maka, cupid pun bergegas mencari Piskhe. Namun, ketika Cupid menemukan Piskhe, Cupid malah tertusuk panah asmaranya sendiri karena terpesona melihat kecantikan Piskhe. Sejak saat itu, Cupid jatuh cinta kepada Piskhe dan tidak jadi menjalankan perintah Aphrodite.
Beberapa waktu kemudian Aphrodite menyadari bahwa Cupid tidak menjalankan perintahnya dengan baik karena Piskhe belum menunjukkan tanda-tanda bahwa ia sedang jatuh cinta kepada siapapun. Akhirnya Aphrodite memutuskan untuk menuntaskan permasalahan tersebut sendiri. Aphrodite mengutuk Piskhe sehingga tidak ada seorangpun yang mau datang melamarnya.
Beberapa tahun berlalu setelah kutukan Aphrodite terhadap Piskhe. Kutukan tersebut membuat orang tua Piskhe khawatir karena Piskhe telah mencapai usia untuk menikah namun belum ada siapapun yang dating melamarnya. Orangtua Piskhe akhirnya datang kepada Orakle (peramal) untuk meminta nasehat. Sementara itu, tanpa sepengetahuan orang lain, Cupid membuat Orakle mengatakan bahwa Piskhe tidak ditakdirkan untuk menikahi seorang manusia, melainkan menikahi seekor makhluk yang tinggal di sebuah gunung. Betapa sedih hati orang tua Piskhe mendengar nasehat dari sang Orakle bahwa putrinya harus menikahi seekor monster di tempat yang sangat jauh. Meskipun berat, akhirnya orang tua Piskhe merelakan putri bungsunya tersebut untuk mengikuti takdirnya.

Senin, 23 September 2013

07.52 - No comments

CRITICAL RIVIEW (1)



CRITICAL RIVIEW
By Zuraida
Howard Rachlin (2000). The Science of Self-Control (Chapter 1: ‘Habit and Will Power’). Harvard University Press: USA, (Will Power: Page 9-19)
Everybody wants to live happily until the end of time. In order to get what they want, people will seek the happiness in several ways. One of the ways is to get their self-control. There is an original claim by Howard  Rachlin that ‘human happiness is inseparable from self control’(p.8). when people want to achieve happiness, they have to keep their life in order by developing good habits.
Will Power is the subject of chapter one of Howard Rachlin’s book The Science of Self-Control. In particular, the author applies his viewpoint called teleological behaviorism to self-control. The application of teleological behaviorism to self-control according to George Ainslie’s (1992) Picoeconomics, the papers reprinted in Gary Becker’s (1996) Accounting for Tastes, and Richard Herrnstein’s (1997) The Matching Law. The author believes that patterns of behavior lead to self-control. Will power is the very first concept to understand in order to know how behavioral pattern may be established. The author consider three view points of what it means to explain will power: a religious view, the Cartesian view and a modern view. The author finds that the concept of the will is the purposes of human daily life although it is too unscientific to survive in modern psychology (p.18).
To support this idea, the author provides the general problem with particular examples. Particularly, that of alcoholism, how to apply self-control principles to people own specific problem will not be immediately obvious.
In explaining about will power, Howard Rachlin identifies the concept into three view points. The first is a religious view, ‘originating in the ancient East but popularized in the West by Saint Augustine at about the time of the fall of the Roman Empire’ (p.11). Will, from the religious viewpoint, is not how we generate behavior, but rather like a toggle switch. Sometimes it gives our behavior over to control by the angel (the good) and another time it gives our behavior to control by the devil (the bad). Self-control thus consists in keeping that toggle facing upward; impulsiveness consists in keeping it downward. The second is Cartesian view of will power. One of the biggest contributors on this concept is Descrates. According to descrates, the soul already has all ideas of all concepts is ever going to have. Willpower thus has a literal interpretation in Descartes’s model—the power of our souls to wrest control of our behavior from the outside world (p.16). And, the third is the modern neurocognitive view of will power. This view points state that self-control as an internal process. “The problem with this model is that it provides no mechanism by which abstract purposes may be translated into specific actions”(p.17).
The idea of three view points of will power is convincing. We need to consider each particular example of every view points and the pictures that shows how the concept works. But, the explanation of the three view points above seems improper. The author should explain fairly about every benefits and lacks of each view points. If the author did not explain each view points completely, then the author seems to support one of the view points.
Another questionable aspect of this article is the domination of Decrates thought in Cartesian view. Decrates is the biggest contributors of this view and the author only present his thought to support the explanation of Cartesian view. The author should consider another thought to enrich his explanation of the view. It is also to keep the objectivity related to the Cartesian view.
Despite these criticisms, Howard Rachlin’s article has contributions to the knowledge, particularly in self-control. This kind of knowledge is not only necessary as the grounded theory of another upcoming knowledge, but also really important to apply in our daily life. The particular examples that given by the author had taken from our daily activity and so that makes us think about how mind works in order to achieve happiness.

07.49 - No comments

CRITICAL RIVIEW (2)

CRITICAL REVIEW
By Zuraida

Dr. Mahmoud Alsalkhi (2013), The Effect of Using Ipad of the Achievement of the Ninth Grade Students in the Islamic Education in Jordan (Journal of Education and Practice). http://www.iiste.org/book/.

The development of technology is a worldwide issue. It affects almost everything and every aspect in human life, including education. In term of education, technology makes people easier in accessing and delivering knowledge. The knowledge and news will be spread out faster. So people can easily get recent knowledge and news. Beside, technology also gives people a lot of possibilities to create various kinds of method in delivering knowledge to others. One of the brand new products of technology with a lot of benefits is ipad. People start to use it with so many reasons, one of the reasons is for educational purpose based on Jim Harmon (2013) stated that “The iPad has been the focus of much excitement in the educational world of late, leading some to insist the device is a death knell for textbook companies (p. 1).
The effect of using iPad of the achievement of students is the research that conducted by Dr. Mahmoud Alsalkhi on 2013, The Effect of Using Ipad of the Achievement of the Ninth Grade Students in the Islamic Education in Jordan. In particular, Dr. Mahmoud Alsalkhi applied this research to the ninth grade students in the Islamic Education in Jordan. Dr. Mahmoud Alsalkhi is a lecturer in the department of educational sciences in The University of Jordan. He wrote a lot about research in Islamic education and culture and also about fiqh. One of his latest researches is about the effect of using iPad for students in Islamic Education in Jordan.
There are four terms that should be defined in this research, according to Mahmoud Alsalkhi. There are the iPad, the conventional method of teaching, achievement and unit of Islamic jurisprudent. Mahmoud Alsalkhi mentioned, “The iPad is a line of tablet computers designed and marketed by Apple Inc. It is a fast and precise electronic device that has the ability to receive, store, and treat data .This device provides a new technology that can split and communicate presented information to the learner to be acquired in a simple, easy, and clear way” (p. 96). Meanwhile, the conventional method of teaching defined as “the way in which students learn with the help of the teacher who takes the primary role in the learning process” (p. 96). Another term that also has to define in this study is achievement than mentioned as “The amount of what has been achieved by students from behavioral learning objectives in the unit of jurisprudent in Islamic Education, in this research, achievement is measured by the total mark of student obtained from the test prepared by the researcher for this study” (p. 96). The last term is unit of Islamic Jurisprudent that defined as “one of the modules prescribed in the book of Islamic education for the primary ninth grade in the second semester of the academic year 2012/2013. This unit includes the following topics (Usury, Money Exchange, Sale on Credit, Marriage, Dowry, Permanent Forbiddance of Women, and Temporary Forbiddance of Women)” (p. 96). Then the author stated the limitation of this study based on the definitions above by the three things: this study conducted only in the elementary ninth-grade students in the Hassad Educational Schools, the Directorate of Private Education in Amman, for the academic year 2012 /2013, to know the impact of using iPad on students’ achievement, and to the unit of Islamic jurisprudent in the Islamic education.
Based on Mahmoud Alsalkhi, this research aims to “manifest the effect of using ipad on the students” achievement ninth grade in the Islamic Education in Jordan compared to the conventional method’ (p. 94). The sample of the research consists of 95 students from Al-Hasad Educational schools that belong to the Directorate of Private Education in Amman during the second semester of the scholastic year 2012/2013. Mahmoud mentioned that the objectives of this study is “to view on of the modern e- learning techniques, and it’s applications in teaching Islamic Education in Jordan” (p. 95). According to Mahmoud the objective of the study could be depicted into five as the following: To view new and alternative methods away from traditional ones in teaching the Islamic education through taking advantage of e- learning techniques, to identify the differences in the achievement of the elementary ninth-grade students who use the iPad in studying the Islamic Education unit and among those who are studying in the traditional manner, as well as knowing the impact the gender variable, and the interaction between the traditional method and gender, to raise the awareness of Islamic education teachers to use the ipad in the educational process, to contribute in improving methods and resources of teaching Islamic education in public schools, and to emphasize the importance of using the iPad in providing an interactive learning environment which takes into account individual differences among learners (p. 95).
To support the importance of this research, Mahmoud Alsalkhi mentioned some of similar research that ever conducted before. One of the researches have been conducted by Kiger et al on third grade students at a Midwestern elementary school (p. 96). Another research about using ipad as teaching method also conducted by Haydon et al with different subject, high school math students. Another reasearch conducted by Milman et al in a qualitative case study about the implementation of an iPad initiative in a PK-4 school in the United States (p. 96). Hahn and Bussel on 2012 have conducted a research about the impact on a first year undergraduate students’ performance in the University of Illinois (p. 97). Crichton et al also showed a study about the impact of iPad on students’ interaction and learning motivation that conducted in K-12 schools, beside in this study they also involved the impact of iPad on the teachers’ performance (p. 97).
According to Mahmoud Alsalkhi, this study was considered semi-empirical of the type pretest-posttest design given to two equivalent groups. One group of the students taught by conventional method was used as a control group, and the other empirical group of students was taught by using the iPad tablet. This study is based on comparing the effect of using the iPad with that of the conventional method on the learning achievement of the students of the primary ninth grade in the Islamic jurisprudent unit in Jordan (p. 97). The sample of this research consists of 95 students with 45 males and 50 females in primary ninth grade of Al-Hasad educational school. The empirical group consists of 46 males and females students. Meanwhile, the control group consists of 49 males and females students.
After the analysis, the study concludes three following things: “Using the iPad in learning has a significant effect on the academic achievement of the Ninth Grade students compared to those who learned by the conventional method. the achievement of students (males and females) who learned by the iPad was better than those who learned by the conventional method, the 2-way interaction ANOVA analysis indicates that there is no difference, with statistical indication at the level (α=0.05), between the achievement of the Ninth Grade male students and female students, Regarding the interaction between the gender and teaching method, the achievement test results of male and female students in the control group indicated no differences with statistical indication at the level (α = 0.05). This means that the iPad has no effect on the achievement of students attributed to their gender.” (p.102). In the end of this study, Mahmoud Alsalkhi recommended others to conduct this kind of study that apply to all learning stages and using various study materials in terms of theoretical level. In the practical level, the author recommended that iPad tablets and software should be available for students in all study stages. And a particular recommendation from the author is “teachers of the Islamic Education be qualified and trained for using the iPad and applying its educational programs” (p. 102). The author also attached some picture of the iPad that used to deliver a lesson and the sample of achievement test.
The research is almost convincing but the author forgets to warn teacher or reader to consider about the bad effect from using iPad. Since iPad is a brand new device of technology, some people may not familiar with how to use it and how it works. The lack of understand the iPad could not maximize the using of it though. So teacher and student have to have the same ability in using the technology. Beside, teacher should aware to the other purpose of using iPad that is for amusing and entertaining. The teacher should consider controlling the students in using iPad not to let the students use it for too much game and entertainment. So the researcher should present a little bit about the disadvantages that could appear from the using of the iPad.
Another questionable aspect is the use of literature review. The author should add more theoretical references to the writing, not only the result of other researches. It would showed people that this kind of research is really brand new so that lack of theoretical references.
Despite the criticism, from the study above, people will know that the development of technology could bring a lot of benefits in teaching method. It gives the opportunity and possibility for people to create the way they learn and deliver lesson. It makes learning become much easier, faster and also attractive supported by this brand new device called iPad. This study also leads others researcher to a lot of issue for further study. For Indonesia, this study gives a new contribution of knowledge in education. Indonesian people can use this knowledge to improve learning process in Indonesia. This study gives Indonesia people the awareness to maximize the benefits of using iPad for educational purpose, since we know that the using of iPad still dominated for amusing and entertaining purpose.

Reference:
Jim Harmon (2013). Unlocking Literacy with iPad. http://www.nwea.org/support/article/1172/ map-basics-overview.

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