Salah satu artikel menarik ditulis oleh Dr. Glen M. Cooper dengan judul Astrolabes and Zijes as Tools ef Education and the Transmission of Scientific Knowledge from Islami Civilization. Artikel ini secara tidak langsung hasil dari pembelajaran seorang Glen bersama mahaiswanya di kelas. Glen sendiri merupakan mantan staf pengajar tamu di Claremont McKenna College Amerika.
Claremont McKenna College sendiri merupakan salah satu perguruan tinggi seni liberal terbaik di Amerika. Dibangun untuk mencetak mahasiswanya membuat perubahan. Perguruan tinggi ini menarik banyak mahasiswa yang beragam dan berprestasi di luar kelas.Kembali ke Glen yang juga tertarik dalam kajian instrumen astronomi terutama astrolabe. Pada suatu saat, ia melakukan eksperimen pengajaran bersama muridnya di kelas. Ia mencoba mengampu materi astrolabe dan zij. Astrolabe dan zij sendiri bisa dikatakan kajian klasik yang cukup rumit karena melibatkan cara-cara yang memakan waktu lama.
Tapi karena Glen seorang pengajar, ia mencoba menjalankan dari awal hingga akhir. Dan ini adalah kesan menarik yang dirangkum Glen dalam artikelnya.
“ I have asked students to fill out a questionnaire about these assignments, to help me improve them. I have selected passages from their comments that indicate how effective these assignments were. [Used by permission].”
Sebelum mendapatkan kesan dari para mahasiswanya, Glen terlebih dahulu meminta izin kepada mahasiswanya untuk mengisi sebuah kuesioner.
"What a great way to learn about Islamic culture!" (1) "My dad is an engineer, and I can't wait to show him how to use this astrolabe”. (2) “[This assignment] really shows us how hard scientific discovery was since we take our ability to discover by using great technologies for granted a lot of the time.” (3)
Sungguh cara yang bagus untuk mempelajari budaya Islam! (1) Ayah saya adalah seorang insinyur, dan saya tidak sabar untuk menunjukkan kepadanya cara menggunakan astrolabe ini (2). [Tugas ini] benar-benar menunjukkan kepada kita betapa sulitnya penemuan ilmiah karena kita sering menganggap remeh kemampuan kita untuk menemukan sesuatu dengan menggunakan teknologi hebat (3).
Kesan dari siswa pertama adalah menunjukkan sebuah pujian bagus tentang pelajaran budaya-budaya islam terutama dalam bidang astronomi. Siswa kedua tidak kalah antusias, ia bahkan akan mengajak ayahnya untuk berdiskusi. Respon bijak dilontarkan siswa ketiga, ia merasa takjub dengan penemuan ilmiah seperti astrolabe dan zij. Mungkin ia juga merasa tidak bisa menjangkaunya karena hidup di era teknologi yang canggih dan sudah sangat akrab.
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| Potret ruang modern yang ada di Claremont McKenna College. (Foto : cmc.edu) |
“My favorite part about the workshop was simply gaining an understanding the complex and intelligent systems that people during those time periods put in place to gain an understanding of time and the heavens”.(4) “It was unbelievable to realize how smart and observant the men who built and constructed astrolabes actually were.” (5) “The attention to detail and the focus that these people put on the heavens to assist in navigation, time, and astronomy was very impressive to me personally.” (6).
Siswa keempat menyatakan beruntung karena mendapat pemahaman luar biasa tentang sistem rumit dan cerdas yang dibuat oleh orang-orang masa lalu guna memahami konsep waktu dan alam semesta. Adapun siswa kelima malah tidak percaya bisa ada fenomena seperti ini. Bagaimana bisa astrolabe benar-benar bisa dibuat. Dan siswa keenam sangat terkesan karena astrolabe ternyata bisa membantu dalam hal navigasi, waktu, dan astronomi pada umumnya.
Berikutnya adalah kesan secara keseluruhan dari mahasiswanya.
“I also liked that we physically constructed the astrolabes together, not just having them given to us.”
“My favorite aspect was the astrolabe being a great hands-on way to learn. After doing so many lectures, it can be easy to not retain all the information after a while. The astrolabe activity let me learn a lot about how science could be used for religious practices. Practically everything that the astrolabe could tell had some kind of tie to Islamic culture and tradition as a whole.”
“I liked how [the planetary tables assignment] tied into the astrolabe but also expanded on what the astrolabe taught. It showed that these simple numbers from the astrolabe coupled with certain charts could lead to unbelievable predictions that I thought were only possible in the modern day.”
“The planetary tables ... [were] big things that I thought NASA scientists were doing [that] could be done relatively easily with the correct methods.”
“I liked how we were applying what the Middle Easterners used to tell time in class so we could get a true understanding about the astrolabe.”
“Using their technology helped me put myself in their shoes better.”
“If we were only taught the function of the instrument through lecture, my understanding of its importance would not have been fully attained without actually using it.”
“It made me more aware of how complicated the science world was back then. ...I am now more aware of how important these past scientific tools are and grasped a greater appreciation for them.”
“I liked how we were able to integrate the concepts we learned in a lecture setting to an actual hand-held tool.”
“The workshop served as an effective way to apply what we learned in class in a practical way.”
“It was neat to be able to act like an ancient astronomer and use the astrolabe to perform calculations. Since most history classes are composed of discussions and writing, it was a nice change of pace and fun to do a hands-on activity to learn about ancient history.”
“Being able to physically conduct calculations myself gave me a more holistic understanding of astronomy and ancient technological tools. Just like lab in the science class helps practice scientific concepts, these workshops help more fully understand astronomy.”
“Such a practical exercise has never been done in any of my classes before, and so this was refreshing and meaningful.”
Dari sekian saran dan kesan siswanya, berikut adalah saran kreatif yang bisa dibilang mampu meningkatkan tugas tersebut.
“I think it could have been very interesting to be placed in a “situation” in which we had to use the astrolabe to solve a problem people had faced. If there was an element of creativity added to the assignment in which we had to problem solve it could really improve the assignment. This problem should be related to the issues that people had to solve with the astrolabe when it was a primary instrument used.”
Menurut saya, akan sangat menarik jika ditempatkan dalam “situasi” di mana kita harus menggunakan astrolab untuk memecahkan masalah yang dihadapi orang-orang. Jika ada unsur kreativitas yang ditambahkan pada tugas di mana kita harus memecahkan masalah, hal itu dapat benar-benar meningkatkan tugas tersebut. Masalah ini harus terkait dengan isu-isu yang harus dipecahkan orang-orang dengan astrolab saat itu menjadi instrumen utama yang digunakan.
Di akhir artikelnya, Glen menilai bahwa kegiatan-kegiatan seperti ini sangat sesuai dengan pembahasan teori astronomi dalam tradisi Islam. Saya akan menggunakannya lagi, tapi dengan perbaikan dan perluasan.
Secara tidak langsung, Glen sedang mengevaluasi model eksperimen pembelajarannya dan hasil itu akan digunakan pada pembelajaran berikutnya yang lebih efektif, menarik dan baik. Ini yang perlu dicontoh para pembelajar dan pengajar.
Siswa keempat menyatakan beruntung karena mendapat pemahaman luar biasa tentang sistem rumit dan cerdas yang dibuat oleh orang-orang masa lalu guna memahami konsep waktu dan alam semesta. Adapun siswa kelima malah tidak percaya bisa ada fenomena seperti ini. Bagaimana bisa astrolabe benar-benar bisa dibuat. Dan siswa keenam sangat terkesan karena astrolabe ternyata bisa membantu dalam hal navigasi, waktu, dan astronomi pada umumnya.
Berikutnya adalah kesan secara keseluruhan dari mahasiswanya.
“I also liked that we physically constructed the astrolabes together, not just having them given to us.”
“My favorite aspect was the astrolabe being a great hands-on way to learn. After doing so many lectures, it can be easy to not retain all the information after a while. The astrolabe activity let me learn a lot about how science could be used for religious practices. Practically everything that the astrolabe could tell had some kind of tie to Islamic culture and tradition as a whole.”
“I liked how [the planetary tables assignment] tied into the astrolabe but also expanded on what the astrolabe taught. It showed that these simple numbers from the astrolabe coupled with certain charts could lead to unbelievable predictions that I thought were only possible in the modern day.”
“The planetary tables ... [were] big things that I thought NASA scientists were doing [that] could be done relatively easily with the correct methods.”
“I liked how we were applying what the Middle Easterners used to tell time in class so we could get a true understanding about the astrolabe.”
“Using their technology helped me put myself in their shoes better.”
“If we were only taught the function of the instrument through lecture, my understanding of its importance would not have been fully attained without actually using it.”
“It made me more aware of how complicated the science world was back then. ...I am now more aware of how important these past scientific tools are and grasped a greater appreciation for them.”
“I liked how we were able to integrate the concepts we learned in a lecture setting to an actual hand-held tool.”
“The workshop served as an effective way to apply what we learned in class in a practical way.”
“It was neat to be able to act like an ancient astronomer and use the astrolabe to perform calculations. Since most history classes are composed of discussions and writing, it was a nice change of pace and fun to do a hands-on activity to learn about ancient history.”
“Being able to physically conduct calculations myself gave me a more holistic understanding of astronomy and ancient technological tools. Just like lab in the science class helps practice scientific concepts, these workshops help more fully understand astronomy.”
“Such a practical exercise has never been done in any of my classes before, and so this was refreshing and meaningful.”
Dari sekian saran dan kesan siswanya, berikut adalah saran kreatif yang bisa dibilang mampu meningkatkan tugas tersebut.
“I think it could have been very interesting to be placed in a “situation” in which we had to use the astrolabe to solve a problem people had faced. If there was an element of creativity added to the assignment in which we had to problem solve it could really improve the assignment. This problem should be related to the issues that people had to solve with the astrolabe when it was a primary instrument used.”
Menurut saya, akan sangat menarik jika ditempatkan dalam “situasi” di mana kita harus menggunakan astrolab untuk memecahkan masalah yang dihadapi orang-orang. Jika ada unsur kreativitas yang ditambahkan pada tugas di mana kita harus memecahkan masalah, hal itu dapat benar-benar meningkatkan tugas tersebut. Masalah ini harus terkait dengan isu-isu yang harus dipecahkan orang-orang dengan astrolab saat itu menjadi instrumen utama yang digunakan.
Di akhir artikelnya, Glen menilai bahwa kegiatan-kegiatan seperti ini sangat sesuai dengan pembahasan teori astronomi dalam tradisi Islam. Saya akan menggunakannya lagi, tapi dengan perbaikan dan perluasan.
Secara tidak langsung, Glen sedang mengevaluasi model eksperimen pembelajarannya dan hasil itu akan digunakan pada pembelajaran berikutnya yang lebih efektif, menarik dan baik. Ini yang perlu dicontoh para pembelajar dan pengajar.
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