Agents of Change Celebrating Teachers 2013
TEACHING SCIENCE FOR GIFTED STUDENTS.
A CASE STUDY DONE IN INDONESIA
By
Surachman Dimyati ([email protected])
Universitas Terbuka
Indonesia
Abstract
Science should be taught in certain ways in order to lead and encourage students to get the
optimum results in education. The use of the inquiry method in teaching science, especially for
gifted students is more sound than other strategies. Some researchers such as DiGissi and Willet
(1995), on the matter of inquiry showed that only advanced learners shown how to construct new
knowledge from the text. Moar and Taylor (1995) argued that teachers whose pedagogical
approach promoted inquiry were more successful than those who implemented a direct teaching
approach. Others issues regarding science and studies related will be discussed.
Students’ characteristics, variety of teaching methods for teachers, understanding the role of the gifted students’ parents, and also the schools support better results for the gifted students are also discussed scholarly and other field observation and interviews with the administrations, teachers, parents, and
students done in Cugenang Gifted School, Cianjur, West Java.
Some examples include Dimyati’s observation of his gifted daughter Rachman in 1997 when she
finished reading 254 books in 10 days. Moreover, the use of inquiry strategy to teach science
implemented by Dimyati to Rachman in 2003 proved that the use of this strategy was the most sound
for the gifted. Additionally, in May and June 2013, when Dimyati taught science to gifted students,
he found that the use of the same strategy led the gifted to become more enthusiastic in learning
process.
Key words: teaching, science, gifted students, IQ Page 1
Agents of Change Celebrating Teachers 2013
TEACHING SCIENCE FOR GIFTED STUDENTS.
A CASE STUDY DONE IN INDONESIA
Introduction
This paper poses and views science or natural science as knowledge taught in schools. First,
Science is the body of knowledge about nature that represents the collective efforts, findings,
insights, and wisdom of the human race. Second, science is a human activity with the function of
discovering the orderliness of nature and finding the causes that govern this order. (Hewitt, 1993,
p.1). Yager, et all (2010), cited the 1996 National Science Education standards (NSES) as
portraying science as a human endeavor and how this is translated to what should be considered in
science classes (NRC, 1996)
Teaching science is sometimes a bit different than other social sciences. Science is the results of
the original work of many scientists. It should be taught as scientists work and produce to get the
results. The concepts of science were implemented in many ways to help human being in more
efficient and require less effort to do many things, and to ease, to speed the work and other daily
life. How science should be taught will be discussed. Gifted students will be discussed in term of
definitions, characteristics, some true stories, and some other important issues related to gifted
students. The special characteristics of the gifted, like the high RAM of computer that can handle
many tasks at the same time, require parents, teachers, and school administration to have extra
information to handle these very bright students. They act differently in doing many things,
including learning.
Teaching science
Research in science education suggests that a curriculum based on in-depth understanding of science
concepts and “new science” standards that focus on an investigatory rather than the more traditional
approach best develop the talents, interests and motivation to do science in the real world for talented
learners. (Robinson, Shore, Enersen,(2007), p. 163).
Science contains biology, physics, chemistry, earth and astronomical sciences taught to all of the
students from elementary school, junior high school, and senior high school, and as part of
higher education in a certain department from bachelor degree, master degree, and doctorate
degree. In Indonesia, science is taught almost in all the level since K-10, from kindergarten to
grade 10. Although science is taught in almost all the level from K-10th grade, the termination of
the science teaching is in the 11th grade due to the specification of the output of schooling. For
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instance, since grade 11, students of high school in general high schools are grouped in math and
science classes and social classes. Other emphasis groups, such as religion, linguistics, food and
beverage, aviation and other group is facilitated in the vocational high school. Vocational high
school however science is taught in less theoretical manner, means in this type of school,
science is taught in more practical in the ways of explaining the application and implementation
of the concepts.
The common teaching method implemented by most teachers and lecturers and probably science
professors are different from this method. However, the inquiry method is the most appropriate
teaching method to teach science. In inquiry-based learning, the students’ plays a major role in
defining the content through curiosity-driven questions and defining the pedagogy needed to
actively pursue the answers to these questions. (Robinson, Shore, Enersen, 2007, p.35).
Why do most of the teachers and lecturers in higher level education avoid implementing inquiry
in their teaching process? Well, some people argue that the school system with the way evaluates
the learning process.is the main factor influencing the way how teachers and lecturers are
hesitate or “hate” using this teaching method. Multiple choice tests are used in almost every
subject matter in pretests, formative tests, and summative tests. The multiple choice tests
themselves are ok for testing cognitive skills, however, they unable to measure students’ attitude
and psychomotor skills accurately. Other issues that most likely take a major role in degrading
teachers’ attitude to implement an inquiry teaching strategy are national examinations, entrance
tests in almost every level from junior high school to even college levels. So that what most
teachers do in the learning process in schools is almost the same with those private institutions
which offer to train students to do problem solving in many types of exercises to cope with the
high schools content standards to prepare for competition among other high schools students to
get the admission from state or private favorites Universities or colleges..
Definitions of Gifted
According to the National Association of Gifted Children (NAGC) in the US: gifted individuals are
those who demonstrate outstanding levels of aptitude (defined as an exceptional ability to reason and
learn) or competence (documented performance or achievement in top 10% or rarer) in one or more
domains.
The federal definitions (in the US): “The term of gifted and talented students means children and
youth who gave evidence of higher performance capability in such areas as intellectual, creative,
artistic, or leadership capacity, or in specific academic fields, and who require services or
activities not ordinarily provided by the schools in order to develop such capabilities.
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States definitions (in the US):
Kansas: “Gifted” as defined in K.A.R.91-40-1(cc) means performing or demonstrating the
potential for performing at significant higher levels of accomplishment in one or more academic
fields due to intellectual ability, when compared to others of similar age, experience and
environment.
Georgia: Gifted student- a student who demonstrates a high degree of intellectual and/or
creative ability (ies), exhibits an exceptionally high degree of motivations, and /or excels in specific
academics field and who needs special instructions and or special ancillary services to achieve at
level commensurate with his or her abilities. (SBOE Rule 160-4-238,p.1)
The newly adopted standards for the university personnel preparation alone are not sufficient to
reach the goal of quality instruction for gifted learners in our schools, partly because not every
college of education offers course work in gifted education.
Currently, teachers who wish to learn more about how to work with advanced learners must
attend workshops or convention programs or seek written material in the topic. (Callagher in
Kitano at all, (2008, p. viii).
Parents of Gifted children are notoriously accurate in identifying their children abilities,
especially if they have some ideas about how children normally develop Louis and Lewis (1992),
Jackson (1992), Robinson and Robinson(1992), AND Robinson, Dale, and Landesman (1990) report
that parents dependably describe their children in term of characteristics and behaviors that are
indicative of advance reasoning and skills.
(Robinson, Shore, and Enersen (2007, p.7)
There are many evidence-based practices that work with talented youth. The home environment
can stimulate parent involvement, developing specific talents, genders and others. In the
classroom environment, many activities can stimulate gifted children such as encouraging
creativity, multiple intelligences, higher level thinking, science in the classroom, etc. School can
act in carrier education, learning multiple languages, school programs, acceleration, multiple
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Agents of Change Celebrating Teachers 2013
criteria for identification, Professional development for teachers. (Robinson, Shore, Enersen
,2007).
Over view of Cugenang Gifted School.
Gifted education is relatively new for Indonesia, since the National Education system does not
clearly facilitate gifted students, provide teacher preparation, or set regulations. There are still many
pros and cons. Association of Gifted in Indonesia was actually founded, although
developers (colleges or universities), schools (schools that provide gifted service), and
practitioners are still unready to take the big challenge to cope with gifted education in
Indonesia. Initial preparations that close to the preparing gifted education were acceleration
programs implemented in international school standards. However, the implementations are
need to be improved in many ways
The study will focus on teaching science in Indonesian schools including that implemented in
Cugenang Gifted School (CGS) , Cianjur, West Java, Indonesia. The school is claimed to be the first
gifted elementary school in Indonesia. It started in 2008 to 2010 for facilitating infra-
structure, and the implementation of teaching and learning processes have been in progress for three
years. This is a private boarding school with free tuition and other expenses that is offered especially
for low incomes families. The school was founded by two private people who want to contribute to
the development of gifted children in Indonesia. The school expenses were paid mostly by the
founder and other individuals donations.
As a gifted school, the students were selected with a high degree of levels of ability. They must have a
score of more than 130 in IQ, commitments, and verbal quotients. Therefore, only a few students have
been accepted in every academic year. In the last academic year, even though more than 100 students
applied to register for this school, none of them were accepted.
Unlike other common elementary schools, the teaching process in this school is that every
teacher teaches one or two subject matters. So the teacher is moving from class to other classes. Like
other elementary schools in Indonesia, this school also implemented the national
curriculum, including science.
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As gifted students who have a high level of intelligence, most of them act differently from other
common students in their level. For instance, they attend the instruction looked strange. While
teacher explains a -certain concepts, they usually do other things, such as crawling, drawing,
moving and other activities. When teacher warns them that she or he is teaching and explaining,
they answered that they are listening. When the teacher tries to test whether they comprehend
what the teacher was explaining, surprisingly most of them are able to answer the question
comprehensively, even though they were moving around and did many things while their teacher was
explaining something.
Although the three years maximum effort for this school was implemented with personal funding and
donations, someone might say that this school actually not a real gifted school in US or
Western countries.
Some interesting short true stories about gifted children.
1) A nine year old girl read 254 books within 10 days!
Before school closing for winter break at the end of 1997 and early 1998, the teacher in the third grade
of Weber Elementary school in Iowa City, Iowa, gave 2 pieces of paper to all of her
students. She encouraged them to spend some of their vacation days reading books and noting,
note, the name of the books, author, and short summaries on the paper provided. Purnawati
Hustina. Rachman, or Tina as she nick named, was one of the students who paid attention to her teacher
encouragement. From the first day of the vacation she asked her daddy, Dimyati, a ride
to the public library. She grabbed around 15 books every visit to the library. She read them all of the
books from morning to afternoon. Then in the evening she asked her daddy again to go to the library to
borrow another 10 to 15 books. Surprisingly, she read all the books in the evening and morning. So,
within ten days she had read 254 books!
Imagine a nine years old girl able to read 254 books within ten days! She must have an extra
ordinary capabilities. The explanation is that she wanted to show her teacher that she can do a
tremendous thing. No one in her class did like as she did. However, when school began in early
January 1998, Tina submitted the 14 pages of paper showing that had read 254 books within ten
days in winter vacation to her teacher proudly. Poor Tina, for some reason her teacher did not
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pay much attention with the paper she submitted. She might pay a little attention with the long
report of her fantastic achievement in reading. When her daddy asked her, what was your teacher
response when you submitted your reading report? She responded calmly; “nothing. Her face
turned red. She looked mad about the response of her teacher For a few weeks after that, she
never asked again to borrow books from the public library. With the situation like that, her daddy
then met his psychology professor and explained the situation. The professor told him: “You
come to Tina’s school and meet the teacher- and explain the situation. Please asked her,
whether she had read Tina’s fantastic reading report carefully”. The stunned teacher heard this.
She felt very guilty that she hurt Tina’s feeling. The teacher apologized for this. She paid some
attention to her reading report. She promised to call Tina and tell her that her works during the
winter vacation was really fantastic! A few days after that, there was a big change of Tina’s
spirit. She asked again to go to public library although the number of books she read was not as
big as that during vacation days.
2) Three months physics teaching, the gifted learned in less than 7 minutes!
The story happened in early 2003 when Tina attended her 8th
grade in SMP 4 Bogor. Her physics
teacher was kind of sick for about three months. One day when her teacher had recovered, she
told the class that on Monday the test will be held covering the 3 months teaching of physics.
The physics material was 2 books thick. Tina told her mommy that she wanted to quit. She did
not want to go to school any more. She kept complaining, “how come the works for three months
teaching will be tested in two days ahead. No, I quit. I do not want to go to school any more”.
Tina kept yelling to her mommy. Well actually she complained to her physics teacher that it was
not fair. How come without regular teaching, she took the test. Her mommy then told her
husband Dimyati and told him that his daughter wanted to quit going to school because her
physics teacher did not really teach her for three months but she would give the test for those 3
months physics teaching on Monday. The husband told his wife to tell his lovely daughter that he
promised to teach her for 30 minutes as replacements of her teacher’s three months teaching.
Dimyati was a physics education professor at Universitas Terbuka, Indonesia. He had a strong
belief that the use of inquiry method would challenge his lovely gifted daughter. In the evening
around 7, Tina met her daddy and asked him whether her daddy really promised to teach her for
two books physics teaching for 30 minutes. Her daddy agreed calmly and nodded. He then
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hugged her tightly and whispered to her ear. “Tina, you are my blood shed. Anything belong to
your daddy and mommy, you already have them. So, this 2 books for your daddy need seconds
to comprehend it, for you, because you are my blood shed, you needs minutes. Tina stunned and
said; “Daddy you told mommy that you need 30 minutes, right!”. Her daddy responded: “ Yes,
but for you actually you need less than that; - 30 minutes is too long for you”. ”Let’s begins”.
Dimyati grabbed a piece of paper then he punched it with a sharp pencil to make a small hole on
the paper. He then prepared a candle to burn. He talked seriously to Tina, that she should
observe what he did, asked questions, and answer the questions, again and again. He then turned off the
light at home. So it was really dark. The only light was the light of the flame. Tina
screamed; “Daddy it is scary”. Her dad responded, “I’m with you”.
The dark situation is the best condition for observing the light. Dimyati put the candle in front of the
paper that had a hole on it. The image of the flame looked very clear on the wall beside the punched
paper by moving the candle back ward or forward to the paper. Tina began observed the flame of the
candle. She said, “ The flame is up, but the image (on the white wall) is down. The image of the flame
is changing depend on the distance of the candle to the paper. She
observed , she asked the questions, then she answer the questions by herself. She did it again and again
with the moving of candle to the paper that had a hole on it.
Suddenly, Tina was stunned. She realized that his daddy just punch the paper to make a hole on
it. She asked her dad, “ Daddy, you just punch the paper with a pencil, right”. Her daddy
responded: “Yes, I did”. Tina then asked her daddy: “ So this means there nothing in the hole”.
Her daddy responded: “ I do not think so, my baby”. Tina then, surprisingly got the answer
correctly. She said: “ It must be air. It must be air. Air works as optics”. Her daddy then lead
her in the concepts of optics, and said: “ Is that only air works as optics?”. Tina responded
quickly that she did not agree. She said: “ Well , I think water can works as optics, plastics, glass.
In this situation the inquiry approach really worked and led the student to think in higher order of
thinking. Tina thought to extrapolate the material from air, to water, plastics, glass, etc. Her
daddy then argued her and said: “ Well, if you want to read those physics books, (by pointing the
physics books on the shelves) you will find that in certain situations and conditions electric or
magnetic field would work as optics too”. Ok let continue learn physics by using computer with
physics software in optics concepts. When the computer on, then the physics program selected
for optics concepts, the teaching process became more interesting. From magnifier, telescope,
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then microscope was just a few minutes. But again, surprisingly Tina got many ideas regarding
how to put some lenses in order to get an optic instrument. She said: “ if I have 2 convex lenses I can
make a telescope for looking at stars. If I have three lenses, I can make an earth telescope. So I can
make many things with the lenses, many, many things!”. At that time her daddy said: Tina, now
almost 7 minutes have passed, but you are done”. Tina responded: “ what do you mean by
done daddy?”. Her daddy said: “Well, Tina, you do not need my help any more, you have now the three
months physics teaching”. Tina said: “Oh really”. Her daddy then asked her to open her 2 physics
books, to check her understanding the physics concepts in the books. She was stunned that she
understood the whole concept comprehensively. On Monday evening, she brought good news that her
score the for physics test was 100!.
3) Elementary gifted students explained the cardinal directions concepts deeply and
comprehensively.
In late May and early June 2013, Dimyati came to Cugenang Gifted School, Cianjur, West Java,
Indonesia as part of the multi years research regarding developing college text books for gifted
education in Indonesia. It was a free of charge private elementary boarding school. The
administrator claimed was the first gifted school in Indonesia. He observed, interviewed the
administrators, teachers, students and parents of the gifted school. During the works, the
principal asked Dimyati to share his experience with administrators and teachers and also to
teach science to the students. Dimyati agreed to that offer. After sharing experience with 7
teachers and 5 administrators then he continued to teach students question. There are 3 students
for third grader and 5 students for 5th
grade. Part of the teaching material was cardinal
directions. This concepts was very important in daily life. He began by asking the students
queation. “Hi kids! Do you know cardinal direction?”. Almost all of the students responded: “ Of
course, yes sir, yes sir. That’s an easy thing sir.”. Then he continue responded: “ Good, but let
me draw the cardinal directions in this white board”. He drew two line across each other
perpendicularly, and put the sign of North, South, East, and West. One of the students
complained that the picture was too simple, the drawing was supposed to be not just 2 lines, but
need additional 2 line so 4 lines in total. So that we can draw the cardinal directions completely,
such as North, North North East, North East, North East, East etc.
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advanced learners in math, Prufox Press Inc, Waco, Texas,USA
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Education Inc, USA.
Colangelo, N, Assouline, SG, Gross, MUM,(2004), A Nation Deceived: How school hold back
America’s brightest students Volume I, The templeton national report on acceleration.
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Texas,USA.
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