Many Indonesian teachers wish to know about innovations in education including Contextual Learning - Active, Creative, Joyful and Effective Learning (PAKEM). They visit schools which have started to implement PAKEM. The thing they often notice most is that the chairs and tables are arranged in groups. Then the teachers go back to their schools with the idea that PAKEM is just group work, and that all tasks should be carried out in groups so that there are no longer any individual tasks. They fail to understand that PAKEM is about the tasks the children do, not how they sit. These tasks should be challenging and develop skills and competencies like creative thinking, expressing children’s own thoughts and solving problems independently.

The benefit of sitting in a group is that it encourages interaction with other students. They can discuss problems and compare their work. This is important for developing certain skills. But is is important to recognise that only some tasks are suitable for carrying out in groups. Tasks which are suitable for work in groups include:

This website is an attempt to utilize technology to help disseminate the principles of SBM. We will attempt to provide current practical information from the field about school development. However, what is very important to schools in the field is information, especially examples of developments directly from the field itself. Schools that have already implemented SBM type programs (community based) please send information about your developments to SchoolDevelopment.Net so that the information can assist other schools.