1. 1
SAInS – School Action for
Innovations in Science
END OF PROJECT
REPORT
2. 2
SAInS – School Action for
Innovations in Science
FinalProject Report
(December 2012 - November 2015)
Agreement No. AID-‐497‐1‐13‐00001
CFDA Program Number 98.001
October 2012 - November 30, 2015
Prepared for:
Education office USAID
Indonesia
Prepared byColumbia
University
615 West 131 Street, Room 254
New York, NY10027‐‐7922
and
Bogor Agricultural University
Facultyof Mathematicsand Natural SciencesJl.
Meranti, KampusIPB Dramaga
Bogor 16680, Indonesia
This publication was produced for review by the United States Agency for International
Development. It was prepared by the Center for Environment, Economy, and Society at Columbia
University, in collaboration with the Institut Pertanian Bogor. The authors’ views expressed in
thispublication do not necessarilyreflect the views of the United States Agency for International
Development nor the United States Government.
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SECTION 4: LESSONS LEARNED
1. Schools most readily pursueinnovations that align with theexisting curriculum. SAInS
monitoring data indicate that SMAN 13 Jakarta and SMAN 1 Kepanjen, as well as SMA Kornita,
mainly implemented those items in their Action Plans that are the most compatible with their
existing curriculum, particularly in regard to the new requirements of the 2013 National
Curriculum (C13). Luckily, most of these items are actually aligned with C13. Nevertheless, not all
selected Action Plan items were implemented, due to limited schedules and/or the competing
demands of provincial or national programming (training, meetings, management requirements).
2. Teachers need concreteand sustained guidance to understand newtheories ofpedagogy and
their application. Teachers from all schools had difficulty translating the abstractions of “inquiry-
based” or “experiential” learning into actual activities and curriculum units. For this reason, we
added the Embedded Curriculum Expert interventions, which aimed to provide handson and
personalized support according to the needs of each school. Most schools were not able to
describe specific “experiential” learning activities, but rather asserted that inquiry and handson
learning had become a larger part of classroom culture in general.
3. Teachers need stability of hours and salary to participatefully, and Indonesian personnel
policies disincentivizenonclassroomactivities: a challenge faced by SMA Kornita. SMA Kornita
is a private school and receives funding based on the number of students enrolled. Until 2015,
enrollments were below the level that would provide enough funding to employ teachers full
time (24 hours teaching per week). Teachers therefore had to teach in other schools to maintain
the 24hour requirement, and only classroom teaching accrues toward that requirement.
Naturally, the teachers at Kornita would prioritize participation in classroom teaching for this
reason and also because they are only paid for classroom instructional hours. Training, workshop,
and dissemination activities do not count toward salary or toward their
24hour requirement. This has resulted in limited availability for teachers to participate in non
classroom SAInS activities. Despite this limitation, SMA Kornita has conducted most of its Action
Plan activities, completed a substantial schedule of ECE meetings and trainings, and disseminated
STEMbased activities to about 300 local area students, using FabLab facilities during the Kornita
School Science Fair.
4. Indonesian personnelpolicies causeinconsistency in schoolleadership: achallenge faced by
SMA 13 Jakarta: During the course of the USAIDSAInS program, SMAN 13 Jakarta experienced
some instability in leadership, all of which was mandated or instigated by the Indonesian
government. No personnel left the school on their own initiative. The original principal, who
provided a letter of support for our technical proposalDrs. H. Muhammad Effendiwas
replaced by Dra. Een Heraena Supendi, M.Si. by the time the project was approved. Midway
through the project, Dra. Een was replaced by Dra. Noviolaleni, M.Pd. , as a result of the Jakarta
provincial policy to test and rehire or replace all city principals in mid 2014. Finally, just following
our October 2015 progress report, a new principal was assigned to SMA 13: Drs. Janpiktor
Pasaribu. Dra. Een Heraena Supendi, M.Si. was the longest incumbent during the SAInS program;
she joined the NY Study Tour, participated in the Curriculum and Fab Lab workshops, and
produced the SMA13 School Action Plan and its implementation schedule. Dra. Noviolaleni, M.Pd.
joined SMAN 13 inAugust2014 and committedherschool tothe continuedimplementationof
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the ActionPlanas developedbyDra.Een.She had the opportunitytomeetwithUSAIDVVIP
Mr. ErnestoUribe and oversawseveral VIPvisitstothe schoolsindemonstrationof the SAInS
program.In additiontothe change of principalsduringthe SAInSprogramperiod,twovice
principalsalsoleftSMA 13 Jakarta. Vice Principal Drs.HermanSyafri,M.Pd.,wasappointedas
Principal of SMAN 95 inApril 2015 and subsequentlySMAN 98a couple of monthslater.Most
recently,atthe endof October2015, Drs. Adryansahbecame the Principal of SMAN 4 Jakarta.
Despite changesinleadership,SMAN 13 Jakarta has made goodprogressinimplementationof
itsActionPlan,althoughtheyreduced some of theircommitments.Aswiththe othertwo
SAInSmodel schools,SAInSprogramoutreachtooutside schoolswascarriedoutmostlyvia
STEMrelated FabLab trainingsessionsduringsubject areaclusterschool meetings
(musyawarah guru mata pelajaran - MGMP).On the positive side, modelschool personnel
wholefta SAInSschool advocatedformodernizedSTEMinstructionintheirnew schools.Most
notably,PakHermanSyafri,formerlyVice PrincipalatSMA 13 inJakarta, has implemented
aspectsof the SAInSprogramintwo subsequentsschoolshe ledasPrincipal.InSMA 98, his
firstpostingin2014, Pak Hermaninitiatedinquirybasedactivitiesandsuccessfullysolicited
donation50 arduinokitsto jumpstartaroboticsprogram there.Althoughhe wasthen
instatedasprincipal of SMA 95 the followingyear,he simplyinstitutedprogrammingthere as
well,thistime capitalizingonhighlypopularanddevelopedMusicandDramaactivitiesto
create a STEAMprogram (adding“Art”to the mix).He securedthe supportof the DKI Jakarta
EducationAgencyinproviding23D printersforthe schoolsuse insupportingthe STEAM
program.
5. Support fromthe District Education Office is important: special conditions at SMAN 1 Kepanjen.
Leadership and organization in SMAN 1 was generally stable over the course of the SAInS program.
During 2015, the VP for Public Relations, Drs. Sigit Umbar Purnama, M.Pd., was appointed as
principal of SMAN 1 Pagak Kabupaten Malang. However, this has had negligible impact on their
SAInS acitivities. In general, SMAN 1 Kepanjen has enjoyed the most favorable conditions for the
program. The principal, Drs. Maskuri Hasan Basri, M.Si. has the strong support of the Bupati
(District Mayor), which is one reason he has been able to maintain his position during the entire
SAInS program period. The grand launching of SMAN 1 Kepanjen FabLab was attended by Bupati
Malang, H. Rendra Kresna on May 2014. As with the other two SAInS model schools, dissemination
of the SAInS methods to outside schools was carried out mostly via STEM related Fab Lab training
sessions during subjectarea cluster school meetings (MGMP).
6. The Pesta Sains provides motivation and support forstudents and teachers to pursue
interdisciplinary and handson STEMinstruction: As mentioned above, teachers face strong
incentives to maintain businessasusual instructional practices, which are rewarded by salary
and curriculum policies, and are assured of administrative support regardless of changes in school
or district administration. In comparison, nonconventional or extracurricular activities are
disincentivized. The Pesta Sains provides a counterbalance to this inertia by giving teachers and
students motivation to participate in more innovative STEM activities in a forum that is certain to
be regarded positively by school and government administrators, and which is supported by IPB
guidance publications and outreach. The STEM Young Researcher Award (SYRA) is a vehicle for
introducing and promoting crosscutting STEM research among both teachers and students.
Secondary student participation in the SYRA activities increased each year of the project. Most
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participants come from the islands of Java and Sumatra.
7. Innovativemethods in STEM instruction arebecoming mainstream, but teachers need additional
support. Ability to teach using cross-cutting themes and inquirybased instruction is increasingly
required for teachers in Indonesia as well as the United States (e.g. for the Curriculum 2013; and
for the Common Core and NGSS). In the SAInS program, our partner schools expressed the need
for on-site, ongoing assistance to implement their action plans and to integrate such methods into
teaching across the school curriculum. Single training events are not enough to allow teachers to
translate their training to other teachers and to the classroom. The embedded curriculum experts
(ECE) from Universitas Negeri Jakarta (Dr. Muktiningsih) and Universitas Negeri Malang (Prof. Arif
Hidayat) were added to the program to provide assistance and intensive guidance for model
schools.
8. FabLabs generateexcitement and pride. Students are highly motivated to createin the lab and
we are exploring options for showcasing schoolwork at community “maker” events. Students
report that using the lab is interesting and fun; creating their own prototypes motivates them to
master technology and to demonstrate understanding of concepts via their prototype; tangible
outputs and real world utility is satisfying; and parents and student peers respond positively to the
items they create in the FabLab.
9. SchoolFabLabs providea highprofile instructionalvenuethat promotes accountability.
Regardless of the specific use and outputs of each lab, the very investment in prototyping
equipment, training, and space triggersa need to justify the investment by investing time and
effort into training and into developing instructional activities for the lab. Put simply, it is hard to
ignore the FabLab, which would become a highly visible mark of school failure if left unused.
Conversely, the highprofile investment is also a highprofile asset that each school can and has
promoted for the benefit of the school reputation. Luckily, as mentioned above, participation in
the FabLab is rarely seen as a chore. The FabLab is perceived as fun, interesting and compelling by
both teachers and students. Therefore, all of the schools have expended considerable time and
effort to ensure that their school FabLab is used by a wide crosssection of students for appropriate
educational purposes.
10. Strong and multiple FabLab managers/FabLab teachercoaches help teachers to usethe FabLabs
to support instruction, and to link it to classroominstruction. Teachersvary individually and
across schools in their ability to identify or createFabLab activities that support the existing
curriculum or promote general learning goals. The best outcomes occur when there is a FabLab
expert or “champion” who can act as a resource and point person for teachers who want to use
the FabLab. In the simplest scenario, the FabLab faculty manager is drawn from the teaching staff
and he or she is in charge of the logistics and scheduling for lab use. This person usually also heads
a FabLab extracurricularclub for students. This circumscribed role, however, leads to a smaller
range of activities and usage for the FabLab, limited primarily to the faculty FabLab manager and a
subgroup of motivated students.
An important step for our partner schools is to link FabLab activities to curriculum content, so that
use of the lab does not remain only an extracurricular activity, but an essential part of instruction
for all students. In our partner schools, this has come closest to realization when the FabLab
Manager is wellpositioned to collaborate with other teachers to develop activities that align with
the curriculum. The success of the FabLab manager to motivate and recruit teachers to use the
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FabLab depends in part on the personalities of the teachers involved, on the degree to which the
administration encourages and requires use of the labs, and on time and resources available for
labbased activities and curriculum planning. We have seen the best results when there is more
than one lead teacher or administrator integrally involved in managing and promoting the FabLab.
When two or more people are available for consultation and to model lab activities, there is
quicker visibility and acceptance of the viability of the Fab Lab as an instructional tool. The lab is
also seen as a more important part of the school culture, and teachers perceive greater assistance
available to them. In addition, there seems to be additional desire or pressure to ensure high
quality of lab outputs when more teachers are linked identifiably to the FabLab. All of this points to
the utility of creating a critical mass of teachers explicitly linked to the FabLabs, so that the labs are
not marginalized as an “extra,” but seen as a mainstream part of school instruction.
