TRASFORMASI PENDIDIKAN KARAKTER MELALUI PEMBELAJARAN BERBASIS PROYEK (PROJECT-BASED LEARNING) DI SEKOLAH DASAR

Abstract

Character education in primary schools is an attempt to form the students’ mental foundation to meet the secondary education. This is in accordance with the Law of the Republic of Indonesia on National Education System number 20 in 2003 Article 17, paragraph 1, which states that basic education is the level of education that underlies secondary education. Therefore, the instructional processes delivered in primary education should be aimed at preparing the students for further education, especially the character education that is currently being promoted by the government. However, practically there are still many difficulties in the transformation of character education in elementary school because it is constrained by the inability of the primary school students to absorb the complex essence of character education. Therefore, we need a method of learning that is able to transform the character education into an interesting activity for elementary school children. One of the methods used to convey the appropriate character education to students through interesting activities is Project-Based Learning (PBL). This learning method enables the teacher to plan, carry out and evaluate the clasroom activities that facilitate the transformation of character education. There are several ways that can be applied within PBL to build the character of elementary school students, those are; (1) Planning a group project assignment, (2) Applying character values ​​during the project, and (3) Insert a character education indicators in the evaluation of the project. All of those ways are able to provide interesting activities for students in the instructional process where at the same time form a foundation of character in Primary School.