KING VISHNU BHAGWANON KA BHAGWAN PARAMATMONKA PARATOMIC PARAMANU KASARVAMANVA...
Incorporating the global warming issue into a ktsp paper-teflin 2010
1. Incorporating the Global Warming Issue into a KTSP-Based ELT
Mierza Miranti - Sugar Group Schools, Lampung, Indonesia
Abstract - Teaching English based on KTSP can be made to be more meaningful by integrating issues
that hopefully will make students having more than the knowledge about it but also an awareness on
what happens worldwide. This paper, therefore, describes the steps of integrating the issue of global
warming into the lesson by not only taking one side but both sides, i.e. ones believing that global
warming is coming and the others who believe that the global warming cannot be proven scientifically.
The students, who belong to science major, will take a stand after having themselves exposed to a lot
of research and literatures that will support them to support their opinion and argue others in a debate
using the expressions learnt. It is expected that they will also develop their critical mind since the
activities are selected to encourage students to discover, explore, extend, and communicate their own
values, adjustments, opinions, and even arguments, while listening to other people’s point of view as a
practice of respect. Finally, a teaching reflection is put at the end of the paper to be considered for the
next teaching practice.
Keyword: Global Warming issues, KTSP, ELT
1. Introduction
As an English teacher whose one of the roles is to implement the curriculum in the classroom, the
writer considers KTSP (Kurikulum Tingkat Satuan Pendidikan) – or literally translated into
Curriculum on Independent Education Unit – to be applied in the national education system, has
actually given appropriate possibilities for her to really make use of the guideline in order to give
the most of the learning for the students. She would agree that it is beneficial to have KTSP
because it gives her a complete autonomy more than the required standard. At the same time she
tried to accomplish one of the goals set in the curriculum with the class, the integration of global
issues also occur and amazingly achieving beyond language learning itself. As for English as a
language, the level of flexibility is even higher since the entity delivered in the classroom is, of
course, language: a mean of communication. Thus, by recognizing the function, language teachers
can give more than the knowledge and skills. They also can take part as the ones to produce
responsible global citizens who have the following characteristics as defined in Oxfam (2006):
Being aware of the wider world and has a sense of their own role as a world citizen;
Respecting and valuing diversity;
Having an understanding of how the world works economically, politically, socially,
culturally, technologically, and environmentally;
Being outraged by social injustice;
Participating in and contributes to the community at a range of levels from local to global;
Willing to act to make the world a more sustainable place;
Taking responsibility for their actions.
The issue to be integrated in the classroom is global warming since it is considered debatable from
the first time it is proposed as a term (Crane, 1997). One side considers this issue to be considered
scientifically, morally, and even politically correct, while the other considers it as a scam since the
data is not considered valid. Each side argues that the opposing groups want to take advantage over
the issue. Thus, students as citizens are expected to see using a “bird’s eyes-view” in objectively
criticizing this topic. Therefore, in doing the process, students will do some research as their
inquiry learning process. The other reason is because the practices itself are conducted in 3 English
classes of 12 graders majoring in science. These students are expected to use their prior knowledge
based on their major: science.
2. Incorporating the Global Warming Issue into a KTSP-Based ELT
2. The Disputes over the Global Warming Issues
The controversy of global warming involves debates concerning the environment, as well as its
causes and consequences. The issues include the reasons on the increase of average air temperature,
especially since the mid-20th century. Most scientists argue whether this warming trend is within
normal climatic variations or unprecedented, whether the major contributor is humankind, and
whether the measurements of the increase is unreliable. The others concern about the estimated
climate sensitivity, additional warming predictions, and the consequences of global warming.
Furthermore, the popular media seems to take over the controversy rather than scientific literatures
(Boykoff, 2004), where a strong consensus that the temperature on the global surface have
increased in recent decades has been created and that human are the ones causing the increasing
trend of the greenhouse gases.
Actually, the global warming issue had emerged in the 1800s. One famous discussion about the
matter was delivered in the 1860s by John Kendall – a British physicist. He speculated that the
climate changes from glacial to interglacial were related to changes in atmospheric carbon. The
carbon dioxide is said to be the cause of it (Hansen in Greenberg, 2009). Nevertheless, the debate
was still among the scientists and had not been brought into more general scope. Only few media
that covered about the matter, since it might be considered too scientific to be publicized.
The issue becomes more popular and debatable after it was reintroduced by Dr James Hansen, the
head of NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies in New York City, who testified before the
United States Senate for the Energy and Natural Resources Committee in 1988, claiming that
carbon dioxide is the main culprit in the climate change (Shabecoff, 1988). By using mathematical
models, the person who is also marked as the “Father of Global Warming” predicted that for some
years, the carbon dioxide from the burning of fossil fuels such as coal and oil and other gases
emitted by human activities into the atmosphere would cause the earth's surface to warm by
trapping infrared radiation from the sun, turning the entire earth into a kind of greenhouse. After the
issue is coined, more and more researchers speak in front of public and on the media, each having
their own opinion: for or against the idea of global warming.
The latest and most controversial debate has been the one after the launch of Al Gore’s “An
Inconvenient Truth” documentary movie. The movie mainly documented Al Gore’s activities as a
slideshow speaker who presents his investigation of data and predictions on climate change, along
with the potential for disaster. Its thesis is to believe that global warming is factual, potentially
disastrous, and human-caused. It is supported by an alleged specific data, including:
1. The Keeling curve – the measurement of CO2 from the Mauna Loa Observatory.
2. The withdrawal of frequent glaciers shown in before-and-after photographs.
3. A study by researchers at the Physics Institute at the University of Bern and the European
Project for Ice Coring in Antarctica presenting data from Antarctic ice cores showing carbon
dioxide concentrations higher than at any time during the past 650,000 years (Sigenthaler,
2005)
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3. Incorporating the Global Warming Issue into a KTSP-Based ELT
4. A record of temperature since 1880 showing that the ten hottest years ever measured in this
atmospheric record have all occurred in the last fourteen years.
5. A 2004 survey, by Naomi Oreskes of 928 peer-reviewed scientific articles on global climate
change published between 1993 and 2003. The survey, published as an editorial in a Science
journal, found that every article reviewed supported whether a consensus of human-caused
global warming or no comment at all. (Oreskes, 2004)
6. A2004 study by Max and Jules Boykoff showing 53% of articles that appeared in major US
newspapers over a fourteen year period gave roughly equal attention to scientists who
expressed views that global warming was caused by humans as they did to global warming
skeptics, creating a false balance. (FAIR, 2004)
Credits and further international awareness of global warming has followed the documentary in
many parts of the world based on a survey in 47 countries conducted by means of internet by The
Nielsen Company and Oxford University in July 2007. The survey showed that there are 60%
viewers who claimed to have watched “An Inconvenient Truth” said the film had “changed their
mind” about global warming and 89% percent said watching the movie made them more aware of
the problem. The movie itself has received some accolades, one of them is Academy Award in
2007, as Al Gore himself is credited a Nobel Prize winner in 2007 along with the organizing pf an
event called Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).
The movie continues to influence other sectors, even education. Some colleges and high schools in
some countries have begun to use the film in science curricula. The UK Government, Welsh
Assembly Government and Scottish Executive announced between January–March 2007 that
copies of An Inconvenient Truth would be sent to all secondary schools in England, Wales and
Scotland, as part of a nationwide "Sustainable Schools Year of Action" launched in late 2006, The
film was placed into the science curriculum for fourth and sixth-year students in Scotland as a joint
initiative between Learning and Teaching Scotland and Scottish Power. (Leask, 2007). In Spain,
after a meeting with Gore, Prime Minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero said the government will
make the movie available to schools. In Burlington, Ontario, Canada, the Halton District School
Board made “An Inconvenient Truth” available at schools and as an educational resource (Halton
District School Board, 2007).
Besides credits, the movie, especially the alleged scientific facts used in it, has been challenged and
even questioned by some scientists for its accuracy. The debatable claim used in the movie, such as
global sea levels could rise by more than 20 feet (6 meters) with the loss of shelf ice in Greenland
and Antarctica, devastating coastal areas worldwide, is doubted. Some scientists disagree on
prediction of the event as recent Nature study suggested that Greenland's ice sheet will begin to
melt if the temperature there rises by 3ºC (5.4ºF) within the next hundred years, which is quite
possible, according to leading temperature-change estimates. The most notable debate the
correlation of CO2 and temperature, which is not considered part of this evidence. For example,
one argument against global warming claims that rising levels of carbon dioxide (CO2) and other
greenhouse gases (GHGs) do not correlate with global warming (Idso, 2007).
Going to a larger extent of the discussion, there are some debates on the 2008 report from the
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), "Climate Change and Water," saying climate
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4. Incorporating the Global Warming Issue into a KTSP-Based ELT
models "project precipitation increases in high latitudes and part of the tropics." In other areas, the
IPCC reports only "substantial uncertainty in precipitation forecasts." Most scientists argue that
models cannot be compared with observation. Therefore, it is considered not factual (Reynolds,
2010).
Despite all of the debates and controversy that mostly happen on the media, Indonesia seems not to
take too much concern on the matter. Only few media accessible in the country reveals both sides
of the issues. The side which has been exposed is the alleged in support of global warming,
especially after Indonesia ratified Flexible Mechanism agreement which was noted in Kyoto
Protocol in 1997 (Hutagalung, 2007). Therefore, there is almost no room for Indonesian students,
except the ones having a close relation with the field itself, to develop their critical thinking toward
the issue. They can be lead by the media if there is no sufficient exposure to deal with the bias.Even
more when there no such formal education to educate the students on media literacy.
2. The Planning
The writer works in a school applying KTSP. She also believes that at the moment it is still the best
one, especially if teachers can design the best plan for their class using this curriculum There is a
claim for it that it has some advantages to compare with the previous ones, especially on some
aspects of application as it promotes the school autonomy to creatively develop the curriculum
based on the needs of the students and even the demands of globalization (Hanafie, 2007).
As for English, even though the curriculum suggests to have the four language skills: writing,
reading, speaking, and listening, the writer believes that teachers are not supposed to separate the
strands of language. Some activities, of course, are sometimes combined together to achieve
communication goals – which are known as the three main strains of a language, i.e. oral
communication, written communication, and visual communication.
The activities promoting the global awareness should be carefully chosen and planned. One
consideration that can be taken as a benchmark is to have activities that encourage students to
discover, explore, extend, and communicate their own values, adjustments, opinions, and even
arguments, while listening to other people’s point of view as a practice of respect. Learning to
develop their objectivity will help improving their critical thinking skill. Following is the
integration formulated from the Minimum Standard lined in KTSP of English lesson for 12 graders.
Learning Indicators Taken From KTSP Meeting
Main Activities
Reading: Being capable of identifying the
Students are provided with some texts
purpose, rhetorical steps, as well analyzing
related to the topic, i.e. Acid Rain and
the content in explanation texts.
The Melting Geysers, and asked to
identify the purpose and rhetorical
1
steps as well as to skim and scan the
text to analyze the content since they
will be lead to the global warming
issue.
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6. Incorporating the Global Warming Issue into a KTSP-Based ELT
Learning Indicators Taken From KTSP Meeting
Main Activities
Speaking: Using the expressions learnt in a
Having five groups of four in the
debate discussing about the issue of global
classroom, in which each group takes a
12
warming.
stand on one opinion against the whole
class.
3. The Practice
a. Day One
The first meeting – where they will have explanation text reading – will be very beneficial to
give some exposures for the students on the elements related to the global warming issue. Here,
the best method chosen is inquiry learning in which the students themselves who become the
subjects who have to figure out what topic through the choices of the materials used.
Grouping can be started from this meeting. The writer prefers to have a fixed arrangement
throughout the issue to ensure the efficiency of learning time. A group of four would be
preferable since there group will be divided to two in some pair works. The two pairs in one
group, however, are allowed to discuss and share information about the material given.
Collaborative learning and peer teaching are strongly encouraged by the teacher. Initial
agreement on the expected behavior in learning as a group must be made between the class and
the teacher to guarantee the effectiveness on the knowledge grasp without distractions.
The first activity is skimming in which the students are asked to find the main idea every
paragraph in pairs for the first text: “Acid Rain” text. Here, the teacher does not spoon-feed any
information about the type of text since the goal would be for the students to find the
information by themselves. After sharing it with the class, they are asked to work in groups to
find the type of text. It is expected that the students come up with any term, such as a “pattern”,
as found in the text, i.e. a pattern to explain about a process. The discussion is then brought into
a class discussion to share about the pattern and checked by the teacher. After teacher checks the
students’ understanding and make sure they really get more than juts memorizing the term.
In order to formally assess the students’ understanding, the second text – “Melting Geysers” – is
distributed. But this time the instruction is modified into only finding the main idea and generic
structure since they have known the type of text. This type, they will have to do it individually
and share the finding with the class after they swap their answer sheet with their peers. Here, the
teacher must carefully analyze whether the students need a remedial session should they still
encounter problem before going to the next activity.
Afterward, the teacher can move on to the second activity: scanning. By using the same text, she
gives some questions in order to find out students’ understanding about the two texts. The first
text is to be done in pairs, while the second one is individual. After conducting a class
discussion for the text, the teacher gives follow-up questions to lead them to the next activity
next meeting: Global Warming.
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7. Incorporating the Global Warming Issue into a KTSP-Based ELT
b. Day Two
The second meeting is to have a new language strand: listening. The first activity is to have the
students listening to a short discussion about the melting geyser phenomenon. In groups, they
have to find out the type of expression they hear on the recording. After a class discussion,
teacher elicits more answer on the type of expressions – asking for possibilities as well as
stating whether something is possible or not – using the global warming topic.
Furthermore, the students are asked to find any causes and effects they have got as their prior
knowledge and use them to drill the use of the expression. By this time, the teacher makes sure
that the students realize the topic of the next meeting.
c. Day Three
In the third meeting, the students still sit with their group. They are given a set of questions to
make sure they understand what they have to find in Al Gore’s documentary movie “An
Inconvenient Truth”, which are to find out the expressions of possibilities and about the movie
itself. They are also asked to write important information to be used in their writing in the next
activity.
Subsequently, a group discussion is conducted. Then, the group shared their finding with the
class. Here, the teachers bring a checklist rubric at the time the students conducted a class
discussion to find out their understanding on the use of the expression and the movie itself. By
the end of the lesson, the teacher gives students group homework that is to find any resource
about any process they could find in the movie. It is expected that the students will come up
with a more detailed finding, not only about the process of global warming.
d. Day Four
In this meeting, students wok in pairs but sitting with their group so they can share the
information and use the dictionary together. By using the finding they have got from the movie
and other resources, students create an explanation text scheme or cycle. So that the next step –
writing – will be based on the plan they have made. In this stage, they still work in pairs.
After they have finished writing their scheme, the students will still be asked to produce one text
in pairs. Here, the teacher will assess their individual work by choosing which paragraph they
want to write based on their plan. They will have to write their initial by the end of the
paragraph they have written.
e. Day Five
In this meeting, the students are asked to swap their work with the other pairs to be proofread
and edited. They are given the same rubric as their teacher’s as their guidance in assessing their
friend’s work. Following is the rubric used in the meeting:
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8. Incorporating the Global Warming Issue into a KTSP-Based ELT
f. Day Six
In this meeting, the edited work is the given to the owner to be revised. They may or may not
take the suggestion given by the editors. The revision itself takes the whole day since the
students are asked to decorate the paper as well to be visually beautiful to be posted on the class
soft board. The same rubric as the one used by the editor will be applied by the teacher to assess
the final work. An additional criterion on the presentation is added to the rubric.
g. Day Seven
The first activity in this meeting is skimming. The students are asked to find the main idea in
every paragraph in pairs for the first text: “Global Warming: Scam or Reality” text. Having
almost the same method like when discussing explanation text, the teacher does not provide any
information about the type of text. After sharing it with the class, they are asked to work in
groups. It is the “pattern” of the text that they need to find. After that, a class discussion is
conducted to share about the pattern and be checked by the teacher.
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10. Incorporating the Global Warming Issue into a KTSP-Based ELT
0
MAIN POINTS
Fewer than three
Body support
main
points.
Anticipation
of Lacks sufficient
other position
development of
ideas. Does not
anticipate
and
refute
other
positions.
Conclusion does
not
summarize
main points.
ORGANIZATION Poor
Structure
organization.
Transitions
Transitions
are
not present.
1
Three or more
main points are
present, but they
may
be
insufficiently
developed or even
irrelevant.
May
refute
other
positions.
MECHANICS
AND STYLE
Sentence
flow,
variet
Diction
Spelling,
punctuation,
capitalization,
usage
Writing is clear, but
sentences may lack
variety. Diction is
appropriate. A few
errors in
punctuation,
spelling,
capitalization. No
more than one
structural
error(fragment,
run-on, etc.)
Writing may be
hard to follow.
Contains
fragments and/or
run-on sentences.
Diction may be
inappropriate.
May
have
distracting errors
in
punctuation,
spelling,
capitalization.
Organization
is
clear. Transitions
are present.
2
Three or more
main points are
related
to
the
thesis, but may lack
details.
Acknowledges the
opposing view and
summarizes points.
Conclusion
summarizes main
points.
Logical
progression
of
ideas. Transitions
are present and
smoothly
presented.
Writing is clear
varied
sentence
structure. Diction
is
appropriate.
Punctuation,
spelling,
capitalization are
generally correct,
with few errors.
3
Main points are directly
related to the thesis. Support
is concrete and detailed and
enhances
the
thesis.
Anticipates and logically
refutes
opposing
view.
Conclusion more than restates
the thesis.
Logical progression of ideas
with a clear structure that
enhances
the
thesis.
Transitions are mature and
graceful.
Writing is smooth and
skillful.
Sentences are
expressive
with
varied
structure. Diction is consistent
and words well chosen.
Punctuation,
spelling,
capitalization are correct.
There are no errors.
The meeting is ended by asking each group to take their stand on one opinion: the ones who
believe global warming is a fact and the ones who perceive it as a theory. This is to prepare
them for the next meeting in a debate so they can provide themselves sufficient information.
k. Day Twelve
In this session, each presenting group will go against one class. Each group is given 2 minutes
to define a motion and the rest of the 23 minutes to have a debate. The debate will be assessed
by using a rubric evaluating their performance and the use of the expressions.
The most important system applied here is called “delegation system” in which every member is
given opportunities to speak. Should a member has anything to say; he or she must “delegate” it
to the other member to speak on behalf of his or hers. The way they conduct the system will be
assessed as well.
3. The Reflection
By the time this paper is written, the writer is still in the middle of a process of applying the plan.
Therefore, she could only take partial reflection form the activities.
The reflection that can be taken is that teachers need to combine four important things in order to
achieve a successful integration:
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11. Incorporating the Global Warming Issue into a KTSP-Based ELT
1. Sufficient exposures, which is not only from the quantity but also the quality, i.e. the ones that
can draw students’ attention.
2. Careful planning, since carefully planned activities will mostly lead to successful application.
3. Cautious time-management to ensure that all objectives can be achieved punctually.
4. Continuous individualized assessment to ensure that the students have the equal right to grasp
the knowledge and skill.
5. Always try to elicit questions to make sure that the learners have sufficient time to develop
their critical thinking. By having this way, hopefully the objective of inquiry learning is
achieved.
Optimistically, by considering all of the above points, teaching English can be more meaningful
than just teaching a language. One of the benefits for the students is that they could sharpen their
awareness on what is happening globally as well as to be a critical reader and viewers by
improving their media literacy. As for the teacher, integrating current issue means learning new
things beyond teaching itself.
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