Learning without books are too hard (a reflection to a chapter in A Decade of PMRI in Indonesia)

Chapter title: The Development of Learning Materials for PMRI by Siti M. Amin, Hongki Julie, Fokke Munk, Kees Hoogland


As the PMRI is being developed, the needs for the learning material were increasing. Furthermore, teachers involved in PMRI project workshop even asked for those materials several times. This was why PMRI team decided to commence developing the materials based on PMRI.

The first materials were initiated by four adapting universities (UPI, UNESA, UNY, USD) in 2001. Those first materials based on the national curriculum at that time, the knowledge of designing materials, and the knowledge of learning process for children. Not only that, the materials also put an emphasis on mathematics concept by guiding the teacher in organizing the activities that let the students to build the concepts. However, after some consideration in evaluation and advices from Dutch consultants the learning material which is needed should be more oullined.

Those development on the learning materials led to some argumentation, such as some suggested to translate the mathematics materials from Dutch RME textbooks, but the others argue to do the otherwise. Those argumentation forced the PMRI tem to make a task commitee to continuing the materials development.

The commitee had a task to develop some kind of workshop to select the prospective writer which hopefully would give contributions in designing the learning materials for primary. Furthermore those designs should be related to the RME development in other countries such as Netherlands and US. Those learning designs had to formulate some standards in the materials. Some of the standards developed at that time were that learning materials should be in line with the curriculum but still use realistic problems to motivate and help the students in learning mathematics.

Since the textbooks were for PMRI usage, of course the guidelines for making those came from RME which offer the directions of some instructions which have purposes to support the students in construct or re-invent their mathematics knowledge through problem-centered interactive instructions.

At the innitial project of PMRI one pf the dutch consultants, Frans Moerlands, let the concept of iceberg to develop mathematics knowledge introduced. The iceberg is used as a metaphor of designing activity’s model. It not only indicates the level of conceptualization of mathematics concept, but also gives the plausible map of a hypotetical learning trajectory.

The author needs both desingning the textbooks which are suitable for children and regarding the role of the teachers. Nevertheles, the idea of the materials was great, yet the real challenge came from the the textbookse operational which was giving pressure in the arrangement of the books itself.

However, after the development process rolled out there were some admission thatnew laerning materials are not sufficient in the behavorials change. Hence, the authors had obligations to write the teacher’s instructions, so that the teachers would get the basic knowledge about RME practices.

In 2007, the PMRI team commenced the work on completing the textbooks by developing a trajectory where the materials’ production go along side with the workshops. It is believed that developing the architecture of the materials is an substantial element in constructing students’ textbooks. So, thats why the first step done was the development in the arrangement of the materials.

In the begining the workshop participants disscussed the arrangement by bringing their own experiences as a teachers, a lecturers, or even a students. Furthermore, they exploring several textbooks from other countries (Dutch, US, and Singapore) to widen the extent of the architecture samples. From those disscussion rose some questions not only about the textbooks but also about the teacher guidance.

In the end of the workshop, those participants producing a list about the characteristic for indonesian teachers that relevant and convinient according to themselves. And the majority of the participants wanted to differ the books for students and teachers. The students’ books of course consist of mathematics material, while the teachers’ books consist of the written explanation of PMRI ideas and practicess.

The workshop alone was guided by not only experienced mathematics educators from Indonesia which has a lot of experiences in developing materials for indonesian classrooms, but also Dutch consultant which experienced in building learning materials in RME.

Later on, in november 2007, a group of potentials was invited in a meeting which had aims to develop some learning examples that reflect PMRI. This group consisted of mathematics lecturers and teachers having experiences in teaching PMRI in pilot classes. During the meeting, each and every single of the activities held in there was similarity to RME lessons. One of the outcomes that come from some discussion in the meeting was participants see eye to eye in the differences that need to meet in the lesson materials, so that it was hard to design a material for the whole country. Therefore, the team chose to develop one set of material as an example for a basic  for the local team to create their own version in accordance with the regions’ norms.