Institut Teknologi Bandung

The webinars take place via Zoom and YouTube. Commission III of FGB ITB invited four speakers from three different universities. They are Dr. dr. Taufik Pasiak, M.Pd.I., M. Kes. (Dean of the Faculty of Medicine UPNVJ), Prof. Imam Buchori Zainuddin (FSRD ITB), Prof. Iwan Pranoto, Ph.D. (FMIPA ITB), and Prof. Dr. Amin Abdullah (AIPI and UIN Sunan Kalijaga Yogyakarta).

Neuroscience in Education

Taufik Pasiak, a neuroscientist, became the first speaker. He delivered on "The Contribution of Neuroscience in Education as a Dynamic Interaction between Physical, Mental, Social, and Spiritual Elements." The CEO and Founder of the Indonesian Brain School emphasized that the brain cannot be separated from the human entity.

Taufik also emphasized that education cannot be separated from four elements, namely physical, mental, social, and spiritual. He describes the history of philosophers and neurologists who found a powerful interaction with these four elements, such as Sigmund Freud and Ibn Sina.

Taufik then explained the evolution of the human brain from the beginning. The evolution occurred sequentially from the reptilian brain (instinctive), the mammalian brain (emotional), and the new brain (analytical). Today, society is more focused on the Neo-cortex, cognitive education such as IQ, which grows the last of the development of the human brain. As if the brain is only a matter of intelligence. It is impossible to talk about enlightening human education if you ignore the living machine, the human brain that constructs all processes of human education.

"Education is not enough just to educate people," said Taufik. "Education must teach the person concerned how to exercise self-control and at the highest point. How his life becomes meaningful in life."

Creativity and "Inside-Out" Education

Imam Buchori Zainuddin became the second speaker with the theme "Neuroplasticity-Based Education: Developing Creative and Innovative Adolescents." In the 19th century, he revealed that doctors and psychiatrists controlled all, so psychologists are called psychophysics (a branch of physics). Then, psychoanalysis slowly analyzes from a philosophical point of view. After that, psychology was born. An education observer conveys phenomenology as a reaction to positivism (positivism). Positivism extends to behaviorism, which looks at everything from the point of view of competence, function, structure, and other things that can be measured.

In the industrial economy era, positivism was very advanced, so that education was associated with labor problems and the competence of these people according to their field of work. As a result, people are measured by the actual competencies of the job market.

If the approach is still behavioristic, Imam said that education in Indonesia is still 'outside-in'. He compared it to Ki Hadjar Dewantara, who gave freedom of independence so that the applied process was 'inside-out'—from students to the outside. According to him, Ki Hadjar Dewantara is obsessed with liberating his nation, not just for something general.

The Dichotomy of Upper Secondary Education

Iwan Pranoto, the third resource person, is an ITB mathematician. He carries a speech titled "Reframing Upper Secondary Education in Facing an Increasingly Diverse and Crossing World of Knowledge". Iwan focuses on the dichotomy of social sciences, humanities, and sciences applied to senior secondary education.

Iwan compares Indonesia with other countries regarding the diversity of knowledge and disciplines applied to the curriculum abroad. After that, he said, teenagers should concentrate on building critical thinking skills and broad communication skills.
Amin Abdullah was the last speaker. He emphasized non-monodisciplined science through his material entitled "Reformatting the Boundary of Science: Revitalizing Education Policy". Amin raised the idea of ??the high need for multi-, inter-, and trans-disciplinary and an invitation to leave monodisciplines or single-discipline paths.

Amin said that higher education is increasingly narrowing and based on a single discipline in the name of specialization so that students know a little outside their field (low cross-cultural literacy). The epistemology of future education, he said, must be based on a cross-disciplinary scientific basis with Higher Order of Thinking Skills (HOTs).

Reporter: Hasna Khadijah S. L (Environmental Engineering ITB 2019)
Translator: Billy A. Prabowo