Individual Assignment: Compare and Contrast Paper

Anisa Cikal Ardelia (2016120001)

DIFFERENCE SIMILARITY
What is the purpose To build mental character such as To learn a lot of knowledge
of schooling? politeness, socialization, and to prepare the future
independency.
What is the role of As facilitator
teacher at school? As parent
Delivering knowledge to the students
Building students’ character
Ensuring students’ understanding
As friend

(Source: Interview data)

SMA S

Sekolah Menengah Atas (hereafter: SMA) S is located in South Jakarta, near the most
popular monument called Patung Dirgantara. This school is on the 19th floor of a building in one
of the busy and traffic streets in south Jakarta. Last year, this school just moved from the
previous building which is located in Bogor, West Java. Thus, SMA S is a boarding school that
consists of many students from several regions in Indonesia, such as West Java, East Java,
Papua, Ambon, Aceh, and even Jakarta. As stated by one of the teachers in SMA S, 90%
percent students are scholarship receiver from donors like HM Sampoerna and the rests are fee
paying. Furthermore, the students’ family backgrounds are varied, starting from a teacher,
businessman, farmer, and government employee. Thus, the students have lived in the dormitory
that located next to the school building. In addition, the school condition of SMA S is luxurious
and well equipped. There are sports yard, music instruments, air conditioner in all rooms, LCD
projector, and student lounge. Then, as a boarding school, SMA S also provides meals for the
students and also the teacher.

Moreover, this boarding school already had a partnership with a university from the
same foundation. Hence, some of the students already assigned an agreement to enroll in that
university after they graduated. Therefore, some of the students needed to start their college life
earlier (called fast track) by conducting several required tests to attend the university later.
Those tests are accuplacer, PERT, IGCSE, GED, and national examination. Especially for the
students in grade 12, some of them have taken some of university courses while doing their
high school learning. Meanwhile, in this paper, the writer would like to discuss the comparison
and contrast about the purpose of schooling and the role of teacher at a school. In this
occasion, the writer had a chance to collect the data by interviewing the students, school staff,
and teacher. Substantively, to get various points of views, the writer needs to interview parents,
but it cannot be done due to the limitation in contacting parents.

To begin with, according to Abu Ahmadi et al (1991), education is the way to develop
personality and ability from inside or outside the school through a conscious effort and last a
lifetime (Yuliani & Hartanto, 2016). Thus, school can be defined as the place where people can
get knowledge both academically or non-academically for their life. Hence, referring to the
interview data that were collected by the writer show some thoughts about the purpose of
schooling for people. According to the first statement from a male student in grade 11, the
student stated that by schooling he can learn a lot of knowledge from each level of school itself.
Starting from the basic and general material (for elementary school), to the specific material (for
middle and high school). Similarly, with the students’ statement, a physics teacher also stated
that schooling is the way for students to learn both academic and non-academic. The teacher
added that the learning process at school can be used for students in preparing their future.
Instead of learning a lot of knowledge, the other perspective of the purpose of schooling is to
build students’ mental character as stated by one of school staff. This mental character can be
form of politeness and independence. Besides the mental character, schooling also can make
students accustomed to socializing with other people, especially inside the school.

Another important part of education is the role of teacher at school. Referring to the data
collected, each stakeholder gives different perspective on the teacher’s role at school. First, as
stated by a physics teacher, the role of teacher is delivering the materials and knowledge to the
students for their need. While the grade 11 student stated that teacher’s role is not only
delivering the materials, but also needs to ensure the students’ understanding about the
materials in the classroom. Besides that, students added that the teacher also needs to be a
friend for the students because it will make teacher easy to know the students, knowing how the
students learn and also the things that can make them comfortable in the learning process, so
the students can enjoy the learning process. Thus, teacher also needs to be one that can
facilitate each student based on their need. Furthermore, as a boarding school, teacher in SMA
S also roles as parent for each student, since most of the students live far away from their
parents. As the second parent, teacher also needs to build the student’ character aside from
teaching the course material and becomes the one who can make the students comfortable to
share their stories.
 In conclusion, from those two questions above, it can be seen that school plays an
important role in someone’s life. Referring to the purpose of schooling itself, the main point of
each stakeholder perspective is to get a better life in the future; people want to get a lot of
knowledge that can be used as their provision in the future and all of those purposes can be
reached from the role of teacher at school. Teacher plays role as the facilitator, the source of
knowledge, friend, and also parent for each student at school. Aside from those three
stakeholders, parents also have their own perspective about those two questions, but the writer
believes that parents have a high expectation or wishes for the betterment of their children on
the school and teacher, even more for those parents who live far away from their children.
However, due to the limitation, the writer cannot give the real parent’s perspective on those two
questions.
Bibliography
Abu, A., & Nur, U. (1991). Ilmu Pendidikan. PT Rineka Cipta, Jakarta.
Yuliani, S., & Hartanto, D. (2016). Perceptions of Education Role in Developing Society: A Case
Study at Riau, Indonesia. Journal of Education and Learning , 2.
 The Characteristics of My School
Location South Jakarta
Academic Rigor High
Main attraction
Students’
characteristics
(socioeconomic status,
origin/ethnicity,
academic, religious
affiliation, etc.)
Parents’ characteristics
(occupation, education,
etc.)
Teacher characteristics
The role of the teacher* The role of teacher based on:
(*Answers are based
on your individual
data)
School Name: SMA S (pseudonym)
Scholarship
Boarding school
The students are from many regions in Indonesia
Using English as the delivery language
The school is luxurious and well equipped
The students come from West Java, East Java, Papua,
Ambon, Aceh, and even Jakarta.
90% of students are scholarship receiver, the rest are fee
paying.
There are Muslim and catholic students.
The students’ proficiency is in middle stage and some of
them are in beginner.
Living in the dormitory
Parents’ occupations are farmer, teacher, government
employee, and businessman.
The economic conditions of most students are in lower to
middle, and some students are in higher condition especially
for the fee paying students.
Most of the teacher are creative
Applying students centered learning
Using technology for the learning process
Staff: the role of teacher as facilitator for the students. In
addition, teacher also plays as a parent especially for
boarding school, teacher need to be the second parents for
the students where they can share their stories.
Teacher: The teacher roles as the one who deliver the
materials or knowledge that needs to be taught and also
build students’ character. Teacher also needs to teach the
students on how to interact and socialize with other people.
Student: the teacher’s role is monitoring the students. It
 School Name: SMA S (pseudonym)

means that after the teacher deliver the materials, then the
teacher needs to ensure the students understanding.
Besides that, teacher also need to play as a friend, so he/she
can be able to know how to teach the students, choose the
appropriate way to treat students in a classroom, and how
they learn.
The purpose of 1. Student: the purpose of schooling is to learn, to get more
schooling* for: 1) knowledge. It is because school has its level, and in each
students; 2) teachers; level, students will get different material learned. Thus, for
3) administrators; 4) each level, the material is getting specific and higher
parents depending on the level itself. For example when students
(*Answers are based were in elementary school, they tend to learn the basic and
on your individual general material; while they were in middle and high school
data) they will get more specific and complex material. So, we can
get more knowledge than before.

2. Teacher: the purpose of schooling is to learn. It can be

learning academically and non-academically. Learn on how
the students know the nature and also how to interact as a
human being.

3. Staff: The purpose of schooling is to learn, to prepare the

future and it is very important. Aside of learning, schooling
also can shape students mental or character, such as
politeness, and independency,
What you find The students are very respectful and open minded. It can be
interesting about the seen from the way they welcome us since the first day of
school* SEP.
(*Answers are based The school gives students access for them to develop their
on your individual passion by giving good facilities
reflection) The school gives time to the students and teacher to get
closer each other through SAT (students advisory time)
program
The students can be able to follow the school system even it
has a lot of exams, such as accuplacer, GED, PERT.
The students and teacher show their enthusiasm in the
learning process
The diversity of culture, ethnic, and religion that can run as
well