CHARACTERISTICS OF STUDENTS - PART 2
5. Cognitive Development
The level of cognitive development possessed by students will influence teachers in choosing and using learning approaches, methods, media, and types of evaluation. Kindergarten with students aged around 5-6 years, of course, different approaches, methods, and media are used when dealing with students.
Elementary schools whose students are 7-11 years old, and junior high school students whose ages range from 12-14 years and also high school or vocational high school students, who are generally 15-17 years old, because seen from their intellectual development it is clear different.
According to Piaget, the intellectual development of Kindergarten-aged children is at the concrete pre-operational stage, while elementary school students are at the concrete operational stage. and Junior High School and Senior High School or Vocational High School students in the formal operational stage. The stages of intellectual development of students according to Piaget in Masganti (2012: 83) in full can be presented as follows:
0.0 - 2.0 years: Sensorimotor Stage
2.0 – 7.0 years: Preoperational Stage
7.0 – 11.0 years: Concrete Operational Stage
11.0 – 15.0 years: Formal Operational Stage
Based on Piaget's theory of development, it can then be seen that Piaget's three main propositions in relation to the stage of intellectual development. Ruseffendi in Dwi Siswoyo, et al. (2013:
- mentions the following: 1). That intellectual development occurs through successive stages that always occur in the same order. This means that every human being will experience that sequence and in the same order; 2).
That the stages of development are defined as a cluster of mental operations (sequencing, retention, grouping, hypothesis making and drawing conclusions) that indicate the existence of intellectual behavior. 3) That the movement through these stages is complemented by equilibration, a development process that describes the interaction between experience (assimilation) and the cognitive structure that arises (accommodation).
6. Ability/early knowledge
Brothers and sisters, keep it up! Next we will examine the ability / initial knowledge of students. Initial ability or entry behavior according to Ali (1984: 54) is a state of knowledge and skills that must be possessed by students before learning new knowledge or skills. Knowledge and skills that must be possessed first mean knowledge or skills that are lower than what will be learned.
For example, before learning about division, the student must first master the concept of subtraction. Initial abilities for students will have a lot of influence on the learning outcomes they achieve. Therefore, an educator must know the initial abilities of his students. If the initial abilities of students are known by the educator, then the educator will be able to determine where the learning will begin. The initial ability of students is individual, meaning that it differs from one student to another, so to find out it must also be individual.
The way to find out the students' initial abilities can be done through test techniques, namely pre-test or initial tests and non-test techniques such as interviews. Through interviews and preliminary tests, the initial abilities of students can be known. The ability to answer the initial test can be used as the basis for determining learning materials. For example: Ardi, an elementary school educator, when he is going to carry out the learning process on the topic of blood, begins by doing a pre-test first. After students answer the questions given, it will be seen which questions can be answered well and which questions cannot be answered properly.
For example, questions that discuss blood type and blood function can be answered properly. but students have not been able to answer questions related to blood components, blood circulation processes, and diseases that affect blood circulation. On the basis of this data, Pak Ardi in carrying out his studies focused on the components of blood, blood circulation processes, and diseases that affect blood circulation, while blood type and blood function do not need to be discussed in detail anymore.
In addition to the above, to determine the initial abilities of students, it can be done through instructional/learning analysis. In conducting an analysis of learning the teacher must determine the hierarchy of abilities to be achieved. The lower ability is the initial ability (entry behavior). For example, when Mr. Yudi will conduct a lesson on the topic of blood, the hierarchy of abilities that will be achieved by students is that students can explain blood, blood types, blood components, blood functions, and diseases that affect blood circulation.
Based on this hierarchy of abilities, the ability to explain the meaning of blood will be the initial ability that must be possessed when discussing blood types, and so on.
7. Learning style
Learning style according to Masganti (2012: 49) is defined as the way that a person tends to choose to receive information from the environment and process that information. DePorter and Hemacki in Masganti (2012; 49) learning style is a combination of ways to absorb, organize and process information.
From these two opinions, it can be emphasized that learning style is the way that students tend to choose/use in receiving, organizing, and processing information or messages from communicators/information givers. The learning style of students is an important thing to consider in the learning process because it can affect the process and learning outcomes.
Learning styles can be grouped into three namely visual, auditive, and kinesthetic. This is also expressed by Connell (in Yaumi: 2013:
First, visual students are students whose learning will be easy and good if through visuals/vision. Or in other words, the visual modality becomes the main capital for students who have this learning style. Students in this group have difficulties if learning is carried out through verbal presentations without being accompanied by pictures or visual symbols. Visual learning style students have visual power, so an educator when carrying out the learning process needs to use learning strategies and media that can facilitate their learning process.
For example, teachers when carrying out the learning process can use visual media such as: pictures, posters, diagrams, handouts, powerpoints, concept maps, charts, maps, films, videos, multimedia, and television. In addition, students can be invited to make observations/visit places such as: museums and historical heritage sites. Other activities can also invite students to read books that are visually illustrated, using colors to mark important things from the reading content.
Second, auditory learners, namely those who learn something will be easy and successful through hearing. Hearing aids are the main capital for students with this learning style. Students who have an auditory learning style will like the presentation of their learning materials through lectures and discussions.
They also have very good listening power, enjoy listening and excellent oral skills, love to tell stories, are able to remember well the material discussed, know many songs and can even imitate them quickly and completely. However, students with auditory learning type easily lose concentration when there are noisy sounds around them, do not like reading assignments, and they do not like the number of groups whose members are too large.
Third, students with kinesthetic learning styles are students who carry out their learning activities physically by moving, touching/touching, and doing. Type learners learn through their limbs or use more physical than seeing and listening, such as likes to move/move when studying, wiggle their feet, hands, head, likes/likes to write and do things with their hands, uses a lot of non-verbal language. body language, likes to touch something he encounters. On the other hand, students with a kinesthetic learning style find it difficult to stay silent for a long time, have difficulty learning something abstract, such as formulas, and are less able to write neatly.
new concepts, and 2) invites students to learn to explore the environment. Determining students with visual, auditory, or kinesthetic learning styles is not easy. However, teachers need to know the learning styles of their students. Connel (in Yaumi 2013: 127) provides a way to use a Children's Learning Style questionnaire.
In this questionnaire, students were given ten questions, namely 1). What is your habit of learning something new? 2). What do you usually do at home in your spare time? 3) What do you usually do on weekends?, 4). What is the best way for you to remember phone numbers, 5). What do you pay attention to when watching movies?, 6). When you read a story book, what do you pay most attention to? 7). How would you tell someone about the most incredible animal you've ever seen? 8). I only understood something that was great after I…. 9) one of my habits to pass the time is…. 10). When I meet new people, I usually remember... Through these questions will be known the tendency of his learning style. By knowing the learning styles of students, it will have implications for the learning models, strategies, methods, and learning media that will be used. For example, Mrs. Santi as a teacher in a class has 30 students, of which it is known that there are 2 types of dominant learning styles owned by her students, namely 18 students with visual learning styles and 12 students with auditory learning styles.
Mrs. Santi would be more appropriate if her learning was not classical but in groups, namely a group of students with a dominant visual style and a group of students with a dominant auditory learning style. learning audio CD is played, and discussing a topic verbally.
Keep in mind that a person's learning style is not separated from each other, but a person's learning style is a combination of several learning styles, although sometimes there is one that is more dominant.