Friday, May 19th 2011, I got my English course. In that day, Mr. Marsigit, my lecturer, talked about “Developing Mathematics Teaching Using Progressive Teaching”. He showed the differences of traditional and progressive teaching. In showing the differences of that two methods of teaching, Mr. Marsigit difference them based on four main levels. They are spiritual level, normative level, formal level, and material level.
Mr. Marsigit explained that, “Belong to the spiritual level are spiritual, ways of life, good-bad, and functional system. Based on this level, traditional teacher gives the education as an obligation. Also the student. They study just because of an obligation, not because of their awareness. Whereas, in progressive teaching, they said that education is a need for them. So, they can be more motivated in studying, because of their awareness.”
In normative level, there’re law, decree, education system (paradigm of education and theories of education), and nature of mathematics. Based on education system, the traditional teaching, presented teaching to give, only transfering knowledge to the student. The teacher directed and controlled the student. The student just roled as empty vessel. National Examination being the final goal of this traditional teaching. Then Mr. Marsigit continued his explanation to the progressive teaching, “In progressive teaching, the paradigm of education is to construct the student’s knowledge, by themselves. So, there is a reform from traditional teaching to progressive teaching with the new paradigm. In this teaching method, the student is similar with a seed that grow and blossom out. The teacher just facilitate the student as like a farmer. The final goal of progressive teaching is classroom based assessment which is much different from national examination”. Mr. Marsigit also said that pure mathematics being the nature of mathematics in traditional teaching. Otherwise, the progressive teaching refused pure mathematics because younger learner being the learning object of this method, so it would not be pure mathematics, but school mathematics. School Mathematics, containing concret and factual problem. Ebutt and Straker (1995) defined School Matemathics as follow:
1)Mathematics is a search for pattern and relationship, enlarge the student to search pattern and relationship.
2)Mathematics is problem solving activity.
3)Mathematics is investigation activity.
4)Mathematics is a mean of communication.
That’s meaned that the nature of student learning mathematics’s motivation, collaboration, unique, and contextual. It implicated to the changing of subjective student to the objective student by input knowledge they had got, then they published it by test or other, so they would get the justification from their teacher. It made a new knowledge for them. Then, finally, they would be an objective student. It’s appropriate to the Paul Ernest opinion.
So, it could be said, that in traditional teaching the different’s only the students, because the facilites, objective, time, and result were just same with the teacher’s thinking. But, in progressive teaching, all different. Different students, different facilities, different objective, different time, and different result.
Formal level presented curriculum, syllaby, and the book as the handout of the students in learning. In Indonesia, we had known curriculum of 1975, 1980, and so on as the traditional teaching curriculum. That curriculum just orienting on content and the goal of learning. KTSP (Kurikulum Tingkat Satuan Pendidikan), one of Indonesia curriculum that had been semi-progressive, actually could reform traditional curriculum to a progresive curriculum. In progressive curriculum, students’re expected to be active learner by student competence oriented.
Class, teaching content, book, and building could be categorized as material level. In the class, expository method as the single learning method applied in the traditional teaching, because according the traditional teaching, that’s the best way for teaching. In this method, the teacher just doing the same activity repeteadly. Explaining, giving exmple, giving problem, and giving task. Text book oriented applied by the teacher. Whereas, according the progressive teaching, there’s no the best way to educate. So, just used the various method which’s contextual to the student and mathematics. It meaned teacher should be more creative to develop their knowledge and teaching method, not only based on the text book.
That’s all the differences between traditional and progressive teaching. By knowing that, we’re expected to develop mathematics teaching by using the progressive teaching method, that’s better than the tradtional one.
