Character Education Concept

schoolash.blog - The education system in Indonesia in general is still focused on cognitive intelligence. It can be seen from the orientation of the existing schools are still busy with exams, starting from mid exam, final exam to exam. Plus daily exercises and homework problems to solve questions in the textbook which is usually not relevant to the daily lives of students.

Time for policy makers, educators, parents and the community constantly enrich the perception that the measure of success is not exclusively seen from the figures on achievement. School institutions should be a place that always creates experiences for students to build experience and form a superior character.

Definition of Character Education
Understanding the character according to the Ministry of Education Language Center is a "congenital, heart, soul, personality, character, behavior, personality, nature, character, temperament, character". The character is a personality, behavior, nature, temper, and character ". According Tadkiroatun Musfiroh (UNY, 2008), a character refers to a set of attitudes (Attitudes), behavior (behaviors), motivation (motivations), and skills (skills). The character comes from the Greek meaning "to mark" or mark and focus on how to apply the value of goodness in the form of action or behavior, so that people who are dishonest, cruel, greedy and ugly behavior of other people are saying bad character. Conversely, people whose behavior is in accordance with the moral code called noble character.



Concept of Character Education
Noble character means the individual has knowledge of her potential, which is characterized by values ​​such as reflective, confident, rational, logical, critical, analytical, creative and innovative, independent, healthy living, responsible, love science, patient, careful , self-sacrificing, courageous, trustworthy, honest, keeping promises, fair, humble, shy of making mistakes, forgiving, gentle, loyal, hard working, diligent, tenacious / persistent, thorough, initiative, positive thinking, discipline, anticipatory, initiative, visionary, humble, enthusiastic, dynamic, effective / efficient, appreciate your time, devotion / dedukated self-control, productive, friendly, love of beauty (aesthetics), sportsmanship, resilient, open, orderly. Individuals also have the awareness to do better or superior, and individuals are also able to act on the potential and consciousness. Characteristic is the realization of a positive development as an individual (intellectual, emotional, social, ethical, and behavioral).

Individuals who are good or superior character is someone who is trying to do things the best of Almighty God, himself, others, environment, state and nation and the international community in general by optimizing the potential of (knowledge) itself and is accompanied by consciousness, emotion and motivation ( feelings).

Character education is a system of planting character values ​​to the citizens of the school which includes components of knowledge, awareness or willingness, and actions to implement those values. Character education can be defined as "the deliberate use of all dimensions of school life to foster optimal character development". In character education in schools, all the components (education stakeholders) should be involved, including the components of education itself, namely the content of curriculum, learning and assessment, treatment or management subjects, school management, the implementation of the activity or co-curricular activities, empowerment infrastructure, financing, and work ethos throughout the school community / environment. In addition, character education meant as a citizen behavior in schools that provide education should be character.

According to David Elkind & Freddy Sweet Ph.D. (2004), character education interpreted as follows: "Character education is the deliberate effort to help people understand, care about, and act upon core ethical values. When We think about the kind of character We want for our children, it is clear That We Want Them to be Able to judge what is right, Deeply care about what is right, and then do what They believe to be right, even in the face of pressure from without and temptation from within ".

Further explained that character education is that teachers do everything, which could affect the character of students. Teachers help shape the character of students. This includes how to conduct exemplary teachers, how teachers speak or submit material, how tolerant teacher, and various other related matters.

According to T. Ramli (2003), the essence and character education has the same meaning as moral education and moral education. The goal is to shape children's personalities, to become good human beings, citizens, and good citizens. The criteria for a good man, good citizens and good citizens of a society or nation, in general is a certain social values, which are influenced by the culture of the community and nation. Therefore, the nature of character education in the context of education in Indonesia is education value, namely education noble values ​​sourced from Indonesia's own national culture, in order to nurture young people's personality.

Character education rests of basic human character, which comes from the universal moral values ​​(absolute) are sourced from the religion which is also referred to as the golden rule. Character education can have a definite goal, if the footing of the values ​​of the basic character. According to experts psychologists, some of the basic character values ​​are: love of God and His creation (nature with its contents), responsibility, honesty, respect and courtesy, compassion, caring, and cooperative, confident, creative, hard work, and never give up, justice and leadership; good and humility, tolerance, love, peace, unity and love. Another opinion says that the basic character of human beings consist of: trustworthy, respect and attention, caring, honesty, responsibility; citizenship, sincerity, courage, perseverance, discipline, visionary, fair, and have integrity. The implementation of character education in schools must be grounded to the basic character values, which then developed into values ​​more or higher (which is not absolute or relative) in accordance with the needs, conditions, and the school environment itself.

Today many parties demanded an increase in the intensity and quality of implementation of character education in formal educational institutions. The lawsuit is based on a growing social phenomenon, namely the increasing juvenile delinquency in the community, such as mass fights and various other cases of moral decadence. Even in certain large cities, these symptoms have been to the extent that very disturbing. Therefore, the formal educational institutions as a forum for official coaching the younger generation is expected to increase its role in the formation of personality of students by increasing the intensity and quality of character education.

Education experts generally agree on the importance of efforts to improve character education in formal education. However, there are differences of opinion between them about the approach and mode of education. Associated with the approach, some experts suggest the use of moral education approaches developed in western countries, such as: the approach of cognitive moral development, value analysis approach, and values ​​clarification approaches. Others suggest the use of traditional approaches, namely through the planting of certain social values ​​in learners.

Based on the grand design that was developed Kemendiknas (2010), psychological and sosio-cultural formation of character within the individual is a function of the entire potential of the human individual (cognitive, affective, conative, and psychomotor) in the cultural context of social interaction (in the family, school, and community ) and lasts a lifetime. Configuring the characters in the context of the totality of the process of psychological and socio-cultural can be grouped in: Sports Heart (Spiritual and emotional development), Sports thought (intellectual development), Sports and Kinesthetic (Physical and kinestetic development), and Physical Pain and the Willing (Affective Creativity and development) which can be described diagrammatically as follows.

Configuring Character
Experts have put forward various theories on moral education. According to Hersh, et. al. (1980), among the various theories that developed, there are six theories are widely used; namely: a rational approach to development, consideration approach, values ​​clarification approach, the approach of cognitive moral development, social and behavioral approaches. Unlike these classifications, Elias (1989) classified the various theories that grew into three, namely: the cognitive approach, the approach affective, and behavioral approaches. Classification is based on three elements of morality, which used to be the foundation of the study of psychology, namely: behavior, cognition, and affection.

Based on the above discussion can be asserted that an character education efforts that are designed and carried out systematically to help learners understand the values ​​of human behavior associated with the Almighty God, yourself, fellow humans, the environment, and nationhood embodied in thoughts, attitudes, feelings, words, and actions based on religious norms, laws, manners, culture, and customs.