Background
The education system in Indonesia mainly focuses on remembering facts, instead of understanding, applying, and analysing concepts. According to Bloom’s Taxonomy, remembering is the lowest level of complexity (Bloom, 1956/2001). By focusing more on understanding, applying, and analysing the concepts, students will have more space to think critically and creatively. The ability to think critically will help in increasing the quality of the individual, which correlate with one of the objectives of Indonesia’s Ministry of Education and Culture. Other than critical thinking, students also need to develop a “growth mindset” in which the students are always willing to learn new things every day. With the combination of critical thinking and growth mindset, students will be able to continue to improve themselves to be a better, higher quality individual.
Beside focusing on intelligence, students also have to focus on their mental health and physical health. Mental health and physical health go hand-in-hand because individuals with poor mental are at risk of developing chronic physical condition, and individuals with chronic physical condition are likely to develop mental health issues (Canada Mental Health Association, 2022). There are also scientific proof that physically fit individuals can think better than those who are unfit (James, 2019). Therefore, maintaining students’ physical and mental health is as important as academic education in order to maximize student’s intelligence.
Raga, Rasa, and Rasio (Physique, Psychological, and Mind)
Raga, Rasa, and Rasio is a concept of balancing the mental health, intelligence, and physical health of an individual. This concept can be applied in the academic world to develop students who are intelligent and healthy, physically and mentally. In Indonesia’s education world, the current situation is that the students are pursued to achieve good grades in the academic with little concern toward their physical and mental health. This situation can lead to burnout and stresses to the students, and they won’t be able to pursue their non-academic skills such as arts and sports. By implementing the concept of Raga, Rasa, and Rasio, the students should be able to pursue their non-academic skills, maintain a healthy physique and mental, and improve their intelligence.
Logic Model
In order to tackle the shortcomings of Indonesia’s education system, we need to create some program to complement the education system. Logic model is a chart containing detail description of strategies and results. The desired change in the chart is called impact. In order to achieve the desired change, the right dose of actions and resources are needed. Logic model framework will help in planning, executing, and evaluating the programs. Logic model framework uses theory of change to simplify the model into three main steps before working on the details of the model. The theory of change will demonstrate the plausibility of the programs, then we can decide to continue with the details by using logic model.
Program I (Raga)
Activity 1: Physical Education Class
The students choose the physical education class that suit their interests and needs. The offered classes are weightlifting, swimming, running, yoga, gymnastics, and other various sports such as basketball and football. These options are chosen because it can be a hobby therefore can be regularly performed even after the students graduate.
Activity 2: Fitness Journal
The fitness journal is used to track students’ nutrition plan and physical activities. It will help student point out whether the foods and beverages they consume are healthy or not, and the amount of food they intake in a day. It will also help the students to acknowledge their performance on their physical activities. The teachers will check the journal weekly to evaluate the students’ nutrition plan and physical activities, and give advice on it.
Program II (Rasa)
Activity 1: Students participate in social service activities
Participating in social service activity improves students’ awareness toward the life of less fortunate people around them. This activity will nurture their heart to be affectionate and helpful towards people in need.
Activity 2: Students participate in environmental service activities
Participating in environmental service activity improves students’ awareness toward the environmental condition around them. It will help them understand the consequence of human actions toward nature, and how they can preserve the nature.
Program III (Rasio)
Activity 1: Quarterly seminar
The quarterly seminar will increase the students’ soft skills which will be useful in their career. The writing, presentation, and critical thinking skills will help them to do their tasks more efficiently, and produce higher quality work. The communication skills will help them to work in a group.
Activity 2: Academic events
Students will get reward points for participating in any academic events. The points will contribute to the students’ final score for the semester, therefore encourage them to participate in academic events. The academic events will help students to sharpen their knowledge about the area of studies that they’re interested in.
Shared Assumption
In order to make the programs work, the strategies must be based on knowledge. The chances of the programs being successful is higher if the strategies are based on research, theory, and experience. Therefore, the assumptions behind the programs are discussed here.
By programming students to be physically active and have a healthy diet, they will have a healthy lifestyle. Being physically active can improve brain health, manage body weight, reduce risk of diseases, strengthen bones and muscles, and improve the ability to do daily activities (CDC, 2018). As mentioned before, physically fit individuals can think better than those who aren’t fit (James, 2019). Other than physical and mental health, students’ also need to improve their awareness about their social and environmental condition. Social awareness is the ability to accurately understand the emotions of other people and empathize with them (Straw, 2020). Social awareness will strengthen our relationships, increase positivity, and improve conflict management. Environmental awareness is the ability to understand the environment and the importance of its protection (Pachamama Alliance, n.d.). By improving students’ environmental awareness, they will take care of the environment and not exploit it. Lastly, the students need to have hard skills and soft skills. Hard skills reflect the requirements to properly perform a job, while soft skills help employees cope and react appropriately to situations (Team, 2021). By balancing Raga, Rasa, and Rasio, students will be intelligent individuals with a healthy lifestyle who are aware of their surroundings.
Conclusion
The programs created will improve high school students’ quality by supporting their health, awareness, and skills development. Physical and mental health, social and environmental awareness, and soft skills development will give them valuable competency skills for when they enter university and work. The program can be regularly improved by using the performance measurement. If the program succeed in improving high school students’ quality, the education system in Indonesia will be improved and produce higher quality graduates.
References:
Bloom, B. S. (1956). "Taxonomy of Educational Objectives, Handbook I: The Cognitive Domain." New York: David McKay Co Inc.
Canada Mental Health Association. (2022). Connection Between Mental and Physical Health. https://ontario.cmha.ca/documents/connection-between-mental-and-physical-health/
CDC. (2018). Benefits of Physical Activity | Physical Activity | CDC. https://www.cdc.gov/physicalactivity/basics/pa-health/index.htm
James, G. (2019, July 5). Neuroscience Says Your Body and Mind Get Stronger When You Focus on This 1 Thing. Inc.com.https://www.inc.com/geoffrey-james/neuroscience-says-your-body-mind-get-stronger-when-you-focus-on-this-one-thingdraft-1562273865.html.
Knowlton, L. W., & Phillips, C. C. (2013). The logic model guidebook: Better strategies for great results. Los Angeles: SAGE.
Pachamama Alliance. (n.d.). Environmental Awareness. Retrieved June 21, 2022, from https://pachamama.org/environmental-awareness
Straw, E. (2020). Social Awareness: What is it & Why is it Important? https://www.successstartswithin.com/blog/social-awareness
Team, L. (2021, January 28). Why Hard Skills are Necessary in the Workplace. https://www.lorman.com/blog/post/hard-skills-in-the-workplace
