Teachers show more flexibility in organising and grouping pupils' in their learning.

Children's work is displayed in class

SBM and Contextual Learning Training in Situbondo... All the participants in the training appeared enthusiastic and active while attending the scheduled activities. Based upon the principle of "learning by doing" the participants only received brief and general information from the facilitators, then they discussed and shared ideas on various issues relating to school management, encouraging community participation, and facilitation of active, creative, joyful and effective learning methodology. Top: SBM, Community Participation and Contextual Learning training (during a visit to MBE an target school) Above: Contextual Learning 1 training (during the teaching practice at MBE target school, SDN 1 Curah Jeru, Panji Sub-District) To gain more information about SBM and Community Participation, principals and committees of the schools visited primary and junior secondary schools in the MBE target areas, while the teachers and supervisors did teaching practice using Contextual Learning in the target schools. At the end of the training principals, teachers, school committees, and supervisors made a "personal contract" that the outcomes of the training would serve as the initial step in their efforts to improve the quality of education in their schools, based upon the individual tasks, roles, and responsibilities of the respective participants.

Nganjuk District in Pictures 1. Pak Daud and the team from SMPN 2 Prambon having fun practising Contextual Learning 2. Contextual teaching practice at SDI Aisiyah Nganjuk, a teacher telling a story to the children 3. Contextual teaching practice at SMPN 4 Nganjuk, Science - measuring 4. Grade 3 primary school children's work produced during the Contextual teaching practice, evidently they can do it and the results were good

Contextual 3 Training in Kota Batu Contextual 3 training was conducted in Kota Batu. The training was attended by 219 participants including 121 primary school and 50 junior secondary school teachers, 15 primary school principals, 5 secondary school principals, 22 supervisors, and 6 staff from Dinas. Batu City's government is very concerned about the quality of education in its district. This could be seen from the enthusiasm of the head and members of the education committee of the local parliament, and also the Head of the Education Office and his staff when they visited the Contextual 3 training (photo 1). Contextual 3 training was also conducted for non-target schools. This training was attended by 370 primary school teachers (SD and MI) and 70 principals from all non-target primary schools throughout the 3 sub-districts. This training has produced some tangible outcomes. They can be seen in the implementation of the learning methodologies by the teachers in the target schools. At SDN Tulungrejo 04, Bumiaji Sub-district, Contextual has been applied in science lessons in grade 4 (photos 3 and 4). Meanwhile, at SDN Punten 01 they have applied Contextual in the Mathematics lessons in grade 2. Contextual can also be applied in Islamic religious lessons, particularly to memorize short passages from the Qur'an as has been done by teachers at SDN 01 Beji. Each passage is written on paper petals, then the students are asked to arrange each of the petals into a flower with the correct sequencing.

Photo 1: Head of the Local Parliament, Head of the Batu Education Office and Head of its Teaching Section visiting the Contextual 3 training; Photos 2 & 3: At SDN Tulungrejo 04 Bumiaji Sub-District, Contextual learning being applied in a grade 4 science lesson; Photo 4: Contextual Learning can also be used in Islamic religion lesson to memorise passage of writing as seen here at SDN 01 Beji; Photo 5: Students making up addition and subtraction questions using numbers on cards given to them by the teacher.

SITUBONDO: Science Class at SDN 2 Wringin Anom The school principal, teachers and committee of SDN 2 Wringin Anom, one of the MBE partner schools in Panarukan Subdistrict in Situbondo have introduced an innovative program called 'science class'. The idea of this science class emerged at a school meeting. The principal and teachers wanted to raise the quality of teaching in the school. There is a laboratory, which was built at the school after it had been flooded, and there is science equipment provided to SEQIP (The Science Education Quality Improvement Project) partner schools. Out of this the idea of a science class was born. The science class is especially for teaching science to students from grades 3, 4, 5 and 6 using the laboratory, which has now been organized as a classroom. They do this by moving class. When they have science lessons classes, the students move to a science room. By moving class like this it is hoped that the students will be more motivated to learn. Above: The school principal of SDN 2 Wringin Anom explaining the plans for a science class. Below: Grade 6 students doing experiments with magnets. That is indeed the case, the students enjoy it and are motivated to learn science. Without being told to, when there is a science lesson, are students go on their own to the science room. The children's work is more varied and creative. One of the school's students won the Subdistrict Science Olympiad and will represent Situbondo at the East Java provincial Science Olympiad. The school committee was very supportive in implementing the science class at SDN 2 Wringin Anom. Parents provided the furniture, which consists of eight tables made of teak, 35 plastic chairs and a whiteboard on wheels. Farmers in Tulungrejo become Teacher Partners Learning by utilizing the expertise of local experts is being conducted in SDN Tulungrejo 04, Bumiaji, Kota Batu. The model developed by Ibu Prihastutik is to work in partnership with farmers to work together to manage the learning about vegetation growth in class VI. The farmers include apple, strawberry, potato, onion, and mushroom farmers, and they act directly as "teachers". Not only do they work together in the teaching, but the farmers also participate in the assessment process. Using this model the students were very enthusiastic and exhibited very high spirits during the learning. They achieved the required competencies from the perspectives of both understanding the concepts and also the scientific/technical aspects. Using a "Domino Puzzle" to Learn Fractions If you hear the word DOMINOs you immediately think of a card game with red dots ranging in number from 1-6. But not to ibu Juliati, the Teacher of Class III at SD Songgokerto III Batu. She modified the dominos to become a media for learning fractions for her students in class III SD. This led Ibu Juli to become the First Prize winner in the East Java SCIENCE AND MATHEMATICS TEACHER CREATIVITY competition. Congratulations Bu Juli. Ibu Juli modified the the dots on the dominos, here is an example: By using the modified dominos as a media, the puzzle helped the students in class III to better understand the concept of fractions. The students really enjoyed the activity because they could learn while playing a game. Let's Listen to Education Radio Radio Pendidikan (Education Radio) at SDN Baron 1, Magetan is one of the ways in which the school committee has supported the school. The radio station was provided by the parents. Its aims are (1) to help children to learn to become radio presenters and broadcasters; (2) to provide general information on education and learning, especially education about the school's activities which are of concern to the students and the parents; (3) to provide an example of community participation in Magetan district; and (4) to entertain the students and encourage them to learn.

KEBUMEN: Children Writing a Conversation At SD Benerkulon in Ambal Subdistrict, Kebumen the grade 6 students made up conversations together with their friends. They then enacted these conversations using string telephones which they had made. It was a simple but effective and enjoyable activity. Right: Bpk Suyanto, the grade 6 teacher listening to students enacting their conversations using their string telephone. PURWOREJO: Children Writing about a Picture Right: Grade 2 children at SD 1 Kutoarjo, Purworejo cutting up and arranging pictures about rain and flooding. Then they wrote a story based on the pictures. SMPN 5 Kutoarjo: A Practical Science Lesson The grade 9 students at SMPN 5 Kutoarjo are used to doing practical work during their science lessons. In the picture 1 they are discovering that electrical energy can be generated from fruit. On the picture 2 grade 9 students helped by their teacher, Bpk Giono, are learning about natural selection outside the classroom using small different colored squares of paper. MADIUN: Children Finding Information from an Atlas In traditional lessons teachers normally just give information to the students. Using Contextual Learning methods, it is better if the children find the information for themselves. It is important to remember that the ability of students to find information for themselves is just as important as (or possibly more important than) the information itself. Right: Grade 6 students at SD Kanigoro 3, Madiun finding out information about the seas around Indonesia. PURWOREJO: Practical Lessons at SD Pacor 2 Among the most enthusiastic schools in Kutoarjo Subdistrict, Purworejo is one of the more remote schools, SD Pacor 2. Lessons there are generally practical, effective and enjoyable. Below there are three examples, One of them involves the community helping with local content lessons. 1. Grade 6 children being taught by Nyonya Parso, a member of the local community, to make bamboo baskets. 2. The grade 6 children also have cycle repair classes under the guidance of Bpk Ngadino, the school principal. 3. Grade 2 children making up mathematics questions using sticks. PURWOREJO: Tasting Different Foods At SD Wonorejo Kulon, Butuh Sub-district, Purworejo the children also did prac-tical science to discover whereabouts on their tongue various tastes occur: sour, sweet, bitter and salt. They tasted various foods to discover this. In the picture on the right you can see that the teachers, Ibu Sri Wahyuni (left) and Ibu Sumarti (right) joining in the experiment. This encouraged the students as well! MADIUN: Grade 1 Children Writing about Parts of Their Body Lots of teachers think that Contextual Learning lessons are difficult to teach. In fact there are lots of ideas that are easy to apply. The important thing is that chil-dren are active in, for example, thinking and writing. Below: Selin, a grade 1 student at SD Nambangan Kidul, Madiun has drawn and written about the parts of her body.

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