Since my journey at SMEC, I comprehend that becoming a teacher is a great work which could making changes in the society throughout empowerment the young generations to be active citizens. Moreover, even though, I also applied the meaningful learning experiences in the several contexts, but I never think to provoke my students to give active participation in the social reconstruction. Moreover, throughout the metacognitive skills, I find the way how chemistry could encourage my students to get involve in the society.
Under the influence of politics, economics, social, culture, and religion which relate to curriculum as content and subject matter, I will use that content as a tool to empower my students as imaginative thinkers. For example, I could use the metacognition approaches which encourage the students to reflect on their thinking process. I bring them to be conscious that they could active participate in the society. According to Fensham (1988), teachers should “act as couriers” which bring science curriculum into their life. I will concern on empower my students as social agencies to participate in the better world without ignore their holistic as individual. I believe that every student is “an active initiator and reactor” for his or her environment (Marsh, 2000, p.215). My students could use their experiences to relate it with the subjects. It is important to empower my students to dialogue with their experiences (Pinar & Reynolds, 1992). However, I also need to explore “my students’ motivations and feelings about learning as important as the content of learning” (Arnold, 2005, p.19).
Furthermore, throughout the metacognitive skills which provide the meaningful learning experiences for the students. I could relate it with the concept of currere which I found powerful in the curricula unit. According to Pinar (1975) as cited in Pinar (2004), curriculum as currere related to “academic knowledge and life history in the interest of self understanding and social reconstruction” (p.35) which has four steps which are regressive, progressive, analytical, synthesis. According to Doll (2002), currere orientation is on the reflection and transformation of personal experience. Moreover related to experience, currere refers to reconceptualise and exploring existential individual life experiences (Schubert 1986; Ornstein & Hunkins, 2004; Print, 1993; Lovat & Smith, 1993). Therefore, in pedagogic practices, students could use their autobiography to evaluate their experiences, think about future, analysis both past and future, and create the people that they want to be.
Students’ demonstration in my country has powerful force. Most of demonstration that they do is to criticize the government policy such as the increase of petrol price, the increase of education fees, and the corruption. The most powerful demonstration is happened in my country when the students force to replace the president Suharto in 1998. They did the demonstration within the couple days in Jakarta. The powerful demonstration which show that the young people have powerful voices which represents the society. Therefore, based on exploring the idea of empowerment’s students within chemistry teaching and the fact that the students could be empowered throughout the education process, I will expand my understanding and my contribution in this concept to participate in my the reconstruction of my society.