On Friday, 12 Mei 2023, the character education and development class conducted a field study at Olifant School accompanied by Ms. Elga Andriana, Ph.D. The event’s main topic was character education, titled “The Art of Implementing Character Education.” The activity consists of presenting material, sharing experiences by Olifant students, and question & answer related to the material from IUP Psychology students.
The initial discussion mainly focused on the roles of the community, teachers, and schools for their students. Olifant emphasizes that the students have a decisive role when they have Teaching-Learning activities. For example, teachers encourage students to make a target and agreement for the class by deciding on one behavior that everyone in the class has to improve. With commitment and responsibility, students are motivated to be committed to the class and take accountability for what they do in each class session. Students also favor active class participation as they engage in class discussions and introduce various new ideas to the debate.
Olifant stimulates self-expression and freedom where students can modify their uniform according to their interests but still in line with the social norms and uniform guides. This concept is developed into self-assessment, where students fill out their targets for the semester, and teachers will give a report to reflect on at the end of the semester.
From the experiences of one of Olifant’s students, she expressed that Olifant taught her to be respectful, value teamwork, and enhance her problem-solving and punctuality skills. During the question and answer session, a student from IUP Psychology asked about Students with Special Needs on their capacity and capabilities to handle stress. It turns out; olifant has facilities that help Students with Special Needs improve themselves with their peers’ help adapting to the environment—another question by an IUP Psychology student related to measuring students’ development throughout the semester. In Olifant, teachers observe students through class sessions and review their goals for the semester. In the final term, the students will have their reports from the teachers regarding their development throughout the semester. At the end of the session, one of the teachers from Olifant emphasized that love and care for the community are prominent aspects of character education.