Character Building: Professional Development in BINUS University

By Dr. Adie Erar Yusuf, MA. Associate Faculty Member, BINUS University

INTRODUCTION

One key success factor of national development is determined by the available competent and competitive  human resources, especially in the era of globalization. In this senses, education has a central role in increasing competence, and forming the required character.

The National Education System Law No. 20/2003 states that education serves to develop the ability to form character and the civilization of the dignity in the framework of the intellectual life of the nation. Education aims to develop the potential of students to become a man of faith and piety to God Almighty, it also produces precious, healthy, knowledgeable, accomplished, creative,  independent, democratic and accountable human beings.

Ray and Montgomery (2006) stated the results of the research that staff, students, and faculty believe that  character education is occurring in various forms across   the university, and that appropriate role model may have an important impact on college students.  Students  who define formal learning believe that character education occurs best, and should occur, in the classroom, while students who define judicious learning focus on extracurricular settings, especially those involving the disciplinary process.

Finally, guided learning students do not perceive that setting matters as long as mentors or other authority figures are present to lead students in the right direction. The fact remains that the character education in the family environment has not been optimal in supporting achievement of competence and character formation of students. Some of the causes can be evidenced, among others, are busy working parents, parents’ lack of understanding in educating family, the influence of the environment, and the influence of electronic media on the development and achievement of the learning of students.

One alternative for overcoming these problems is through character education that is integrated into the education curriculum in College. In this case, BINUS University has developed a character education program, best known for Character Building since 2001. The Character Building (CB) Program consists CB 1: Self Development, CB 2: Spiritual Development, CB 3: Interpersonal Development, and CB 4: Professional Development. Particular courses CB 4 Professional Development; students will discuss comprehensively moral and ethical business that can serve as guidelines for performing the duties of a particular profession. The scope of the program, including the principles of ethics, professional ethics, ethical decision-making and its implications for a variety of case studies in the industrialized world.

The purpose of this study are 1) to analyze the quality of the program Character Building theoretical, conceptual and implementation, especially at BINUS University. 2) to identify the factors that affect the quality and effectiveness of the program Character Building CB 4 Professional Development, and 3) to determe the model development and quality improvement program of Character Building CB 4 Professional Development in order to develop the character of professionals.

LITERATURE REVIEW

In general term, the word character from Greece (Greek), namely charassein meaning “to engrave” (Ryan &Bohlin, 1999: 5). The word “to engrave” translates to carve, paint, engraves, or put (Echols and Shadily, 1987: 214).The meaning of the character was conceived by Thomas Lickona is “a reliable inner disposition to respond to situations in a morally good way”. Lickona, adding that subsequent “Character so conceived has three interrelated parts: the moral, the moral feeling, knowing and moral behavior” (Lickona, 1991: 51).  In developing effective character education programs, then it can be done through an integrated approach or constructive alignment. Biggs (2003) defines the constructive alignment as follows:

The ‘ alignment ‘ aspect refers to what the teacher does, which is to set up a learning environment that supports the learning activities appropriate to achieving the desired learning outcomes. The key is that the components in the teaching system, especially the teaching methods used and the assessment tasks are aligned with the learning activities assumed in the intended outcomes.

Furthermore, Biggs (2003) argues for the some stages in the constructive alignment as follows: 1) Defining the intended learning outcomes (LOs);  2) Choosing teaching/learning activities likely to lead to the LOs. 3) Assessing students.    Integrated learning and Strategies for effective character education program (character building) can be classified into 4 (four) components namely Outcomes, Clarity, Engagement and Enthusiasm (Bulger, Mohr, and Walls, 2002) as follows:

1) Outcomes. Outcomes enable students to focus their attention on clear learning goals. Outcomes also provide the teacher with a framework for designing and delivering the course content.  2) Clarity. More effective teachers typically provide students with highly explicit directions and explanations concerning the course organization and content. 3) Engagement. More effective teachers utilize instructional strategies that engage students repeatedly throughout the entire lesson. This engagement should begin early in the lesson and continue throughout the lesson introduction, body, and closure.  4) Enthusiasm.  More effective teachers display a high level of enthusiasm that reflects their professional competence and confidence.

Al Rawi (2013) stated sthat measurement of the quality criteria suggested learning methods as follows: 1) To what extents the method is suitable with the allowed time, 2)  To what extents the method gives a better chance of learners’ participation partnerships, 3) To what extents the method gives a chance to exchange ideas and expertise, 4) To what extents the method gives a chance to implement the real life experiences, 5) to what extents the method gives a chance for self-development, 6) to what extents the method gives a chance to the learner to be cooperative, 7) to what extents the method gives a chance to the learner to be self-assessor, 8) to what extents the method makes the learner more enthusiasm and responsive, 9) to what extents the method gives a chance to correlate between different topics, 10) to what extents it is able to organize groups, 11) to what extents it deals with personal differences, 12) to what extents it’s flexible in tracing, 13) to what extents the method uses the new educational technology, 14) to what extents the method use the online teaching.

RESEARCH METHODS

The subject of this study is the entire component program of Character Building CB 4 Professional Development at Binus University which includes lecturers and   academic staff, students and alumni as well as the industry. The research sample is determined by purposive sampling, namely students and alumni as well as the industry as a user of graduates Binus University.

Data collection through evaluation survey with a sample of 37 students and alumni Binus University from the Department of information engineering, industrial engineering and information systems, Marketing communication, who have followed the program Character Building CB 4 Professional Development. The primary data were obtained directly from the answers of the respondents presented via the form questionnaire and interview guidelines. The questionnaires are classified into four (4) parts: 1) Data demographics Data, 2) respondents ‘ perceptions of the performance of Professional Development programs, and 3) of the importance of expectations Data Professional Development programs as well as the results of the interview data in the form of opinions and comments of the respondents with respect to the effectiveness of the implementation of the professional development program. While secondary data obtained through documents from IDC and CLD Binus University.

The questionnaire using Likert scale. Determination of the measurement scale interval value of questionnaires 1 to 5 as follows: rating 5: very good or very important, Rated 4: good or important, Rated 3: good enough or important enough, the value 2: good or Not is not important, and a value of 1: not very good or Very unimportant.

Furthermore the respondents asked to give a response about the expectations of the importance of Professional Development programs in accordance with the development of business and industry time to come. Character Building program includes a Curriculum (Course Outline), the method of instruction (Teaching and Learning Strategies) and assessment and evaluation (just my Assessment). Finally, the results between the perceptions and expectations of the respondents will be analyzed to determine the quality of Character Building program. Research instrument use the questionnaire, interview and observation organized by indicators contained in the variable and tested the validity and reliability. Research instrument of Character Building Professional Development includes three variables and indicators as follows:

1. Curriculum (Course Outline) How about the relevance of the curriculum (Course Outline) which includes the competence of graduates (Graduate Competency), the purpose of education (Learning Outcomes), learning strategies (TL Strategies), material content (Topics) and evaluation (Assessment) in Character Building
2. Learning Methods (Teaching Learning Activities). How teaching and learning activities in the classroom or for outside of class that includes learning methods and techniques, media and learning resources are utilized, the management class.
3. Assessment and evaluation (Assessment). How the assessment process is conducted, how to measure and assess the students’ characters and the evaluation of both a formative and summative.

SPSS version 16 is used for test analysis. The validity of the instrument using the technique of correlation of Pearson Product Moment. The validity of the test results with the significance level 0.05% and r = 0,982 found a score of less than 0,982. Thus, the instrument is declared valid. While the test of reliability using Cronbach’s Alpha. Reliability test results of significance level 0.05% obtained average results underscore less than 0.982. Thus the instrument otherwise reliable. Data analysis using the method Cartesian diagram or Important-Performance Analysis (IPA) as below.

Quadrant 1 (attributes to improve) Important – High Performance – Low	Quadrant 3 (Attributes to maintain) Important – High High-Performance
Quadrant 2 (attributes to consider) Important – Low Low-Performance	Quadrant 4 (attributes to de-emphasize) Important – Low High-Performance

Figure1. Important Performance Analysis

The result of data collection will be used as a basic information for analysis  Character Building-CB 4 Professional Development programs including;  Course Outline (CO), Graduate Competency (GC), Learning Outcomes (LO),  Teaching Learning Strategies (TLS), Teaching Learning Activity (TLA), Topics, Textbook  and Other Online Resources (TBOR), Formative Assessment (FA) and Summative Assessment (SA).

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

The subject of this research is Binus University students and alumni who have followed the program CB 4: Professional Development. With a total of 37 respondents who originated from the Department of information engineering, industrial engineering, information systems, and Marketing communications. The Professional Development program of perception which covers aspects of the curriculum or course outline (CO), teaching learning activities (TLA) and assessment.

It was found that the respondent’s perception of the professional development program on aspects of certain programs tends to be tall.  Aspects of the highest are Topics amounting to 3.7, and aspects that his perception is the lowest Teaching Learning Strategies (TLS).

Professional Development programs against expectations that include aspects of the curriculum (course outline), teaching learning activities and assessment.

Expectations of students toward professional development program tend to be tall.  Aspects of the highest are Graduate Competence (GC), Topics, and Lecturer, and the lowest aspect is Schedule.   A comparison between the perceptions and expectations of the Professional Development program of the respondent can be seen through the gap analysis.

The gap between the perceptions and expectations of the professional development program of the respondents tend to vary among the aspects of the program. The biggest gap is present on the aspect of Graduate Competency, Teaching Learning Strategies, Teaching Learning Activities and Formative Assessment. It means there are problems that need to be resolved relating to aspects of the program. While there is a relatively small gap in the Course Description, Topics, and Schedule. Does that mean there are no problems with aspects of the program? To see the trend between perceptions and expectations towards Professional Development program techniques used IPA (Importance Performance Analysis) with four quadrants which quadrant 1: perception of low and low expectations, quadrant 2: the perception of low and high expectations, Quadrant 3: high expectations and high perception, quadrant 4: the perception of high expectations are low.

 

Based on the results of engineering SCIENCE found that the biggest trend in the Quadrant 3 i.e. high perceptions and expectations are high. It means the overall program of professional development can be maintained. But even so there are some that are in quadrant 2. That means there are some aspects of professional development programs that need serious attention to improved quality.

Results of questionnaire data in the form of comments respondents associated the effectiveness of Professional Development programs with the industrialized world can put forward that program of professional development is very important for the industrialized world. Therefore, based on interview and observation, the respondents expect competence and Professional Development program goals that correspond to the needs of the industry. From the experience of the respondent at the time of the professional development program, the material taught is considered too theoretical and did not match the needs of the industry. Therefore, the Professional Development program materials should always be updated and developed based on real needs in the industrialized world. The material needs to be enriched with examples, i.e. plus concrete examples and more varied. In some cases, the given examples are less relevant to the topic/subject matter. Learning methods in the Professional Development program needs to be enriched with exercises and a practice field. During this exercise and the practice field didn’t run consistently. Although, but not many. To support, this case needs to be considered in order to recruit teachers from practitioners. From the side of the test, material is a matter that was tested in accordance to  industrial world and relevant case.

CONCLUSIONS

Based on the results of this research in General Professional Development program has been running well and can be maintained. However, there are variations in the perceptions and expectations of students and alumni about aspects of Professional Development programs that include; Course Outline for Teaching, Learning and Assessment Activities. The perception in the aspect of the curriculum a couple of things to note for repairs is teaching learning strategies and textbooks and online resources. Then with regard to teaching learning activities needs to be improved is the methods and techniques of instruction. And this aspect of the assessment needs to be improved is formative assessment such as quiz and exercises.

Expectations of students and alumni of the professional development program, among others, is expected to be the highest graduate competency, topics, guests and summative assessment. That means students and alumni expect professional development materials can meet the needs of the world of industry is supported by a relevant topic, Professor-lecturers who understand the industry and the scoring system that is relevant to the issues in the field.

Results of the analysis of the IPA Professional Development program demonstrated generally adequate and in accordance with the needs of the world industry. However in some ways still needed improvement and upgrading of programs on an ongoing basis. To that end, recommended as follows; (1) from the aspect of the curriculum there needs to be improvement in the field of teaching learning strategies such as the varied methods, relevant and appropriate to the needs of the industrialized world, (2) Aspects of teaching learning activities there needs to be improvements in the methods and techniques of learning that can propel the liveliness of the student, (3) From this aspect of the assessment exam questions don’t be too theoretical but rather emphasized on concrete cases and authentic according to the conditions of the world industry. (4) Professional Development programs are designed, implemented and integrated is developed through constructive alignment approach which covers the objectives of the curriculum (course outline), the method of instruction (teaching learning activities) and assessment (assessment).

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