Pijar/USER, Medan. Eleven out of thirty Indonesian universities under Indonesian Association of Professional Social Workers (IPPSI) took part in the Upgrading and National Workshop of Preparing Lesson plan for IPPSI core course of Social Welfare Study Program, held at the FISIP Meeting Room. The event, held on 28-29 August 2017, was organized collaboratively by IPPSI as the organizer and the Faculty of Political and Social Sciences (FISIP) as the host.

During the two-day workshop, the lecturers of the Social Welfare Study Programs at USU, UMSU, UNPAD, UNPAS, UI, UMM, UMJ, UNLA, UINSUKA Jogjakarta, UIN Jakarta and STKS presented 11 out of 19 core courses of semester lesson plan according to the curriculum format set out by IPPSI. The presentations were then followed by a discussion to evaluate the lesson plans.

Main Challenge

“This lesson plan upgrading and workshop is a continuation of graduates profile making agenda as set in the Higher Education Curriculum. The Ministry of Research, Technology, and Higher Education has regulated that all universities in Indonesia must prepare Higher Education Curriculum that should be effective and implemented this year. The Higher Education Curriculum should be prepared by the Association of Study Programs,” said Dr. Oman Sukmana, M.Si., the Head of IPPSI.

As a study program association that has been established since 1986, IPPSI has drafted five alumni profiles in 2016. These profiles are broken down into learning achievements and subsequently broken down into a Semester Lesson Plan. According to Oman, the challenges in the implementation of the Semester Lesson Plan are the availability of references. “We obviously have limited references in Bahasa Indonesia, since most of the references are in English,” he added.

Dr. Abu Huraerah M.Si., the Head of Social Welfare Science Study Program of FISIP UNPAS, believes that the lecturer’s commitment also poses a challenge in preparing the Semester Lesson Plan. “It is a lecturer’s accountability in teaching. Therefore, the planning should be clear. When it comes to teaching, the lesson plan should be well-arranged,” he explained.

For the development of curriculum, Abu argues that the curriculum of the study program needs to be constantly upgraded in order to cater to user needs (users of graduates) and be adjusted to the development of science and technology. “The purpose of this workshop is to respond to such demand; therefore, the lesson plans should correspond and match with the users’ needs as well as the development of science and technology,” he said.

The Forum for Sharing

Siti Annah Kurniati, a lecturer from UMM, said that this event is important to prepare courses specified by IPPSI because it enables the lecturers to have common views in lectures. “This is a forum to share ideas and experiences so the learning objectives can reach level 6 of the Indonesian National Qualification Framework (KKNI) as required for Bachelor’s degree programs. The achievements and objectives must be clear and measurable,” she added.

She also appreciates the positive benefits of the activity that brings new insights in terms of references update and world views, particularly for social welfare sciences.

These eleven pilot lesson plans were then approved as the guidelines for Semester Lesson Plans in 33 Social Welfare Study programs under IPPSI. For the next agenda, IPPSI will hold an Academic Supervisor Training at USU on February 2018. (GK/Magma/rds)