Author:
Tatang Syaripudin
Affiliation:
Universitas Pendidikan Indonesia, Bandung and Indonesia, Indonesia
Keyword(s):
Implication, Students’ Misconception of Philosophy, Curriculum Development.
Abstract:
Using a descriptive method, this research was aimed to describe: 1) students’ misperceptions about philosophy that became an inhibiting factor for them to study the philosophy of education and 2) the implication of students’ misperceptions about philosophy for the development of educational philosophy curriculum. The research subjects were students enrolled in the Primary School Teacher Education Program (PGSD) of Universitas Pendidikan Indonesia (UPI). The data were collected through questionnaires and interviews. The data analysis was carried out through: data reduction, data classification, data interpretation, implication analysis, and conclusion drawing. The result showed that there were misperceptions of PGSD students about philosophy. In their perceptions, philosophy was deemed as: 1) not applicable to the everyday life practice, as irrelevant knowledge, and too mysterious or mystical, 2) difficult to learn, 3) a dangerous knowledge that could lead to apostasy, 4) unnecessary
and not having any actual benefits for everyday life, 5) useless because it did not provide technical problem-solving guide. The implication for the educational philosophy curriculum development is that the lecturer should first introduce the nature of philosophy to the students before teaching them various schools of educational philosophy. This included teaching them the definition of philosophy, the characteristics of philosophy, the difference between philosophy and science, religion, and arts, and the benefits of philosophy for everyday life. This way, their misperceptions about philosophy could be eliminated, and so were the inhibitors in learning philosophy.
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