Why proper teaching method is the most important for developing country?
By: Darari Nur Amali
Tags: Indonesia, Teaching And Learning, Opinion, Education, Social

Illustration only, source: Giphy

Education has always been the biggest factor to shape civilization. This, in my opinion, distinguishes between developed and developing country. Education, moreover, also becomes the upmost reason why some countries develop much faster than another in the last 5 decades. In this writing, I will explain the reasons why.

I am Indonesian, and as a computer enthusiast, I’ve been dive in computer science and programming since Junior High School. Since then, I oftentimes learnt programming through an online course which usually created by an expert from a developed country, because of very limited resources about programming in my native language. When I was in college, at which I also learnt computer science, I realized that the more I learn from two different sources, the more different the outcomes I got. The biggest difference is on the ability to dive deeper and the capability to create something brand new based on the lesson we learnt before.

Illustration only. source: Giphy

Why did that happen? Based on my own experience and research, the problems are on the teaching method which used. In Indonesia, in my experience, the teaching method usually found too deep and on a specific use case only. That makes the student feels hard to dive deeper because we already too deep but didn’t know about the basic. But sometimes, we learn something too basic until we didn’t know how to apply this theory in the real world even didn’t know what for the theory is. For example, they taught me how to cook fried rice, but also taught how to cook Javanese fried rice and Balinese fried rice. But if I want to create another rice-based food such as porridge, I have to learn again almost from zero because I didn’t know how to create a bowl of “good” rice because I only knew how to cook rice for fried rice, that’s all.

On the other hand, when I learnt some lessons from an online course created by an expert from a developed country, I am amazed by their teaching technique which feels like water flows in the river. All about the foundation, best practices, and the application in the real world followed by a challenge which push the student to explore more on a similar even different context using their critical thinking abilities. If I use cooking fried rice as an example as before, I will be able to create another rice-based dishes because they taught how to cook fried rice just for an example and more focus on how to create a bowl of “good” rice, what kind of foods which can be made from rice, how the best practices to cook rice, and many more. In result, If I want to make cook a porridge, I don’t have to learn about cooking the rice at first because I already learnt before.

Illustration only. source: Giphy

Maybe no teaching method fits for all, but if we can develop proper ones, an accelerated education outcome is a certainty. In conclusion, the teaching method is one of many parts of the education system which contribute a big impact on the outcome of the education should get attention from the government of a developing country.

Disclaimer

This writing is based on my experiences, independent research, and opinions. Maybe many Indonesian students experience education differently than me and not every teaching technique in Indonesia match the stereotype I wrote. Fell free to discuss your opinion with me in comments below. Let’s learn together!