Kindergarten Teachers’ Understanding on Social Justice: Stories From Indonesia

The notion of social justice has often been overlooked in the field of early childhood education because many teachers think that it is too early to introduce the concept to young children. Using multicultural theories, this article attempts to explore kindergarten teachers’ perceptions on the issue of social justice. The method adopted in this research is case study. Thirteen kindergarten teachers from five different schools in three different cities in West Java, Indonesia, are selected as participants. Data are collected through semistructured interviews and analyzed using a grounded approach. Findings of this study highlight the extent to which kindergarten teachers understand issues of social justice in terms of equality of treatment. The findings also illuminate complexities faced by the teachers in negotiating social justice in their teaching. The findings also indicate the need to reform curriculum for teacher training programs to include matters like social justice.

STUDI PENGHAYATAN CINTA LINGKUNGAN SISWA DAN MAHASISWA DI PERKOTAAN (STUDI KASUS DI BEBERAPA SEKOLAH MENENGAH ATAS DAN UNIVERSITAS DI KOTA SEMARANG)

Due to economic and political turbulencies in Indonesia people are becoming less aware in paying attention to their environment. Younger group might has a better awareness to the environment than the adults ones. This study aims to explore the behavior of younger people's awareness in Semarang City towards the environment.Four hundred and ten students and key-persons such as selected teachers and lecturers, headmasters, and other competent persons had have been interviewed. Descriptive statistics was employed to explain the behavior of respondents in environmental awareness.The study found that respondents in higher school have relatively better attitudes to their environments than respondents in university. It is suggested that we need to reform curriculum and teaching-and-learning processes in conducting formal education with sufficient color of environment. The role of parents and guardians are urgently important to attain the expected environment-awareness.

Positive impact of integrating histology and physiology teaching at a medical school in China

To modernize its stagnant, traditional curriculum and pedagogy, the Medical School of Wuhan University in China adopted (with modifications) the University of Chicago's medical curriculum model. The reform effort in basic sciences was integrating histology and physiology into one course, increasing the two subjects' connection to clinical medicine, and applying new pedagogies and assessment methods. This study assessed the results of the reform by comparing the attitudes and academic achievements of students in the reform curriculum ( n = 41) and their traditional curriculum peers ( n = 182). An attitude survey was conducted to obtain students' views of their respective histology and physiology instruction. Survey items covered lectures, laboratory teaching, case analyses and small-group case discussions, assessment of students, and overall quality of the courses and instruction. A knowledge test consisting of questions from three sources was given to measure students' mastery of topics that they had learned. Results showed that reform curriculum students were rather satisfied with their course and new teaching methods in most cases. When these students' attitudes were compared with those of their traditional curriculum peers, several significant differences favoring the reform were identified regarding physiology teaching. No other significant difference was found for physiology or histology teaching. Reform curriculum students outperformed their peers on four of five subcategories of the knowledge test questions. These findings support the benefits of integration and state-of-the-art teaching methods. Our study may offer lessons to medical schools in China and other countries whose medical education is in need of change.

Core Courses for Undergraduate Students in Materials Science and Engineering

As a professional with strong theoretical and practical in a new college, the guidance major-materials science and engineering involves extremely broad field. Our reform ideas and practices are only to training science-based applied talents possessing engineering capabilities. Facing the new situation on the demand for materials engineering personnel, we reform curriculum and teaching to get rid of the drawbacks of the original content and build the professional training program with the characteristics and course system.