Analysis Of Relevance Of Mathematics Curriculum Development

Advances in Social Science, Education and Humanities Research (ASSEHR), volume 160University of Muhammadiyah Malang's 1st International Conference of Mathematics Education (INCOMED 2017)Analysis of Relevance of Mathematics CurriculumDevelopmentMoh. Mahfud EffendiMathematics Education Department,University of Muhammadiyah Malangemail: effendimahfud4@gmail.comABSTRACT-The main purpose of Vocational High School(SMK) is to prepare students to work, but the most unemploymentcomes from graduates of SMK. This case can occur because thecurriculum development does not meet the principle of relevance,both internal and external. Internally, the development of SMKcurriculum component must be integrated. While externally, SMKcurriculum development must prepare students to be able to live andwork. The question is whether the development of a mathematicscurriculum in SMK meets the principle of relevance. To answer theresearch problem, the data collection technique used are documentand interview techniques.The document is a mathematics learningplan (MLP) at SMK in Malang, Batu, and Bojonegoro. Data fromthe documents and interviews are analyzed qualitatively in relationto the principle of relevance. Based on the analysis it is found that:1) the development of the mathematics curriculum in SMK is notbased on the need of the skill program or not integrated; and 2)graduate competence standard (GCS), basic competencies (BC),indicators, objectives, teaching materials, methods, and assessmentof mathematics learning outcomes are less compatible. Thus it canbe concluded that the mathematics curriculum in SMK does not meetthe principle of relevance.Keywords: SMK, math curriculum, and relevanceI. INTRODUCTIONThe largest unemployment rate in Indonesia untilFebruary 2016 comes from SMK graduates [28]. One of thefactors is curriculum development and learning. The SMKcurriculum should be developed in accordance with the needsof the work, economy, society, and students [1,5,11,16,29].Therefore, the development of curriculum and learning is tocombine professional knowledge with work skills[3,11,30,32,33]. Such an effort is effective if the goal of all thelessons is sustained or integrated with the purpose of itsprogram of expertise [8,19]. Basically, the integratedcurriculum is to make it easier for students to learn the teachingmaterials and learn meaningfully, so that the goal of the skillsprogram is effective [1,4,6,11].In addition to the main purpose for work, SMKgraduates can also continue to college [31], so that SMKstudents are required to take the national exam [22,23,31]. Thiscase has an impact on the burden of learning more SMK thanSHS students, and the development of mathematics curriculumusing supply-driven principles. The impact of curriculumdevelopment is the overload and overlap of teaching materials,and less consider the scope and sequence of teaching materialdeliverables as a whole [6]. If so, then the learning ofmathematics in SMK does not focus on the essentialmathematical material needed by its skill program, or notintegrated [3,5,6,20].One of the principles of curriculum development isthe principle of relevance. This relevance is both internal andexternal [20,25]. Internal relevance is the integrity of thecurriculum, which is the integration between the goals to beachieved, the content or the material or the learning experience,the process or the method or strategy, and the means ofassessment used to see the achievement of the objectives. Whilethe relevance of an external nature is the preparation of studentsto be able to work and live in the community. This principledescribes that the objectives, teaching materials, learningprocesses covered in the curriculum should be relevant to thedemands, needs, and development of work and society. Thequestion is whether the development of a mathematicscurriculum in SMK meets the principle of relevance.II. METHODThe curriculum is a guideline for the implementationof learning activities to achieve educational goals. Theseguidelines include setting objectives, content or lessonmaterials that students should learn, and how to learn them[24,26]. Development of SMK mathematics curriculum is thedevelopment of mathematics learning guidance in SMK, that issyllabus or MLP. Based on the description and to answer theabove problem, this research is qualitative descriptive type withcase approach [2,10,18,27].This research is document research, so the techniqueof data collection is document technique. The documentsanalyzed are the MLP, class 10 and 12 in SMK at MGMPMalang, SMK Bina Mandiri Malang, SMK EL Malang, SMKN2 Batu, and SMKN Temayang Bojonegoro. For data validity,then also use interview technique. The focus of the analysis isthe external and internal relevance. Analysis of externalrelevance is analyzing the compatibility or integration of GCS,BC, indicators, mathematics teaching materials with thepurpose of their programming skills. While the internalrelevance analysis is to analyze the consistency or conformitybetween GCS, BC, indicators, teaching materials, methods orapproaches, learning resources, and assessment in the MLP.Analysis of MLP elements using Likert Scale withfour cecklist options, namely: very not accordance, notaccordance, accordance, and very accordance. The results ofthis document are analyzed qualitatively and used to describetheir relevance. To calculate and analyze it then the dataCopyright 2018, the Authors. Published by Atlantis Press.This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC license 8

Advances in Social Science, Education and Humanities Research (ASSEHR), volume 160transformed into quantitative data in accordance with the scoreare: 1, 2, 3, and 4 [21]. After the data is transformed intoquantitative data, the calculation of the rating scale is by usingthe percentage [18,21]. To determine the relevance level, usethe category with the following scale.No1.2.3.4.Table 1. Category of the relevance levelScala (%)Category0 - 25Very Irrelevant (VIR)25 - 50Irrelevant (IR)50 - 75Relevant (R)75 - 100Very Relevant (VR)Table 2. Conformity between core competences/GCS, BC, indicator,objective, material/student worksheet, method/approach, and asessment.Aspect ofNORelevanceABCDE% CategoryBC with core1 competences/GCS3223260R2345III. RESULTA. External RelevanceThe principle of external relevance means that theobjectives, teaching materials, learning processes covered in themathematics curriculum in SMK must be relevant to thedemands, needs, and developments of the objectives of theprogram. That is, the development of GCS, BC, indicators, andmathematics teaching materials must refer to and integrate withcompetence standard of program expertise [1,4,6,11].Therefore, the mathematics teaching materials of each skillprogram are different. Mathematics learning in SMK withproblem solving approach, aimed to enable students to adaptand deal with science and technology changes and work needsthrough critical, rational, and creative thinking, and can usemathematical mindset in learning other science and work[13,15].Besides BC and teaching materials are different,MLP format from one skill program to another is also different.This can be clearly seen in the MLP header, which is for whatskills program. Based on the identification results of MLP, noneof the MLPs include skills programs, and there is even a MLPthat reads "for all skills programs". In this case, the objectives,BC, and mathematics teaching materials between one skillprograms are the same, which means very irrelevant (Vir)category. This case is certainly contrary to the function,principle, and objectives of mathematics learning in SMK, thatis to support the purpose of the program of expertise [9,20].This is, of course, contrary to the function, principle, andobjective of mathematics learning in SMK, which is to supportthe objectives of the program of expertise [9,20]. Based on this,it can be said that the mathematics curriculum in SMK does notmeet the principle of external relevance.B. Internal RelevanceIf a curriculum does not meet the principle ofexternal relevance, then the curriculum does not qualify forrelevance, because external relevance is an absoluterequirement. Based on internal relevance analysis, theconformity between core competences/GCS, BC, indicator,objective, material/student worksheet, method/approach, andasessment, is obtained as the following table.6Note:ABCDEIndicator with BCObjective withindicatorMaterial/studentworksheet withindicatormethod/approachwith objectiveAssessment 40IRPercentage (%)66,750,045,8 66,7 58,3 57,5RCategoryRRIRRRR SMK Malang at MGMP Malang SMKN Temayang Bojonegoro SMK EL Malang SMKN 2 Batu SMK Bina Mandiri MalangIn general, MLP for SMK meets the principle ofinternal relevance with a score of 57.5% (category R). Thesmallest percentage is in the appropriateness of the assessmentwith the indicator of 40% (IR), while the highest percentage isthe conformity of the indicator BC, which is 70% (category R).The low suitability of the assessment with the indicator is dueto: 1) the cognitive aspect (C1, C2, C3, etc.) is not in accordancewith the assessed, and 2) in the indicator there is no affectiveaspect but the value in the assessment. While the highpercentage of conformance indicator with BC, becauseindicators and BC is on the syllabus and only copy paste. From5 sources of the research, only MLP in SMK EL Malang iscategorized as irrelevant (IR), because the format of the MLPof the school is still the old RPP formatIn Government Regulation as UUSPN No. 20 Ps.3,2003 and PP N0. 22, 2006 sub. IIC, that the purpose of SMK isto prepare their students to work at the madya level.Hisorientation is being able to work in accordance with thecompetencies required by his work. The effectiveness of thisgoal depends on how the organization of its curriculum. Thus,all the lessons taught in SMK including mathematics must beintegrated and support GCS from its expertise program [1,7,9].Therefore, the orientation of learning mathematics must be ableto help students to more easily learn and understand theprogram expertise. This can be achieved if GCS, BC, indicators,and mathematics teaching materials are developed consistentlyand relevant to the needs of the skills program.Lu Hong in his research entitled: Thought andPractice on Curriculum Reform in Higher Vocational Colleges,it is said that the importance of reform in vocational education[17]. Reforms can be interpreted as the development ofmathematics teaching materials in accordance with theobjectives of the program expertise in SMK. In addition, the29