Unraveling Classroom Stories: A Narrative Inquiry of Engaging Students in Implementing Independent Curriculum

Abstract

The Independent Curriculum is a curriculum with various extracurriculars of study where content will be optimized so that learners have sufficient time to explore ideas and enhance skills. In this new curriculum, teachers are free to choose media or study tools that suit the situation and conditions of both the class and the students themselves. For the successful application of the independent curriculum, teachers and students must create good interactions. Therefore, teachers must have a strategy to invite learners to engage more in the learning experience. Of course, in the development of the application of the Independent Curriculum over the past few years, there are still many shortcomings. This study aimed to know obstacles when inviting learners to be active in the classroom experienced by teachers after the curriculum was replaced by the new curriculum, and also to know steps or methods that make learners more active in the classroom that are frequently used by teachers in the knowledge acquisition. For research design, this study used a narrative inquiry design. Narrative inquiry is a type of qualitative research devoted to the human experience. This research took one English teacher who was teaching at a junior high school in Malang. Data collection for this research used in-depth interviews 3 times to ensure its correctness. Then analyzed using a content analysis approach. The result is several obstacles experienced by teachers when engaging students in active learning. These challenges include low student motivation, students' fear of responding, and teachers' lack of technological knowledge. Apart from that, this research found that the methods often used to engage students are PjBL, PBL, and discovery learning. Key Words: Independent Curriculum, student engagement