DIKTI Shortcourse in The University of Sydney - BERMUTU 2008 Program

After arriving in Sydney Airport, we directly moved to our rent house in Hurlstone Park. The Project Coordinator International Research Grants, Thomas T. Soem picked us up by bus. We settle in an Indonesian couple's house, Mr and Mrs. Asa, 5 kilometers from the airport.
Today, I am in Sydney – New South Wales, Australia to follow the Primary Education Shortcourse conducted by DIKTI in The University of Sydney (Usyd) for 12 weeks. 20 participants comes from different LPTK: 8 lectures from UNY (Yogyakarta), 1 lecture from UNNES (Semarang), 4 lectures from UNESA (Surabaya), 2 lectures from UNJ (Jakarta), and another 5 lectures from UNIJA (Jambi). Schedule has been programmed that we are going to take lesson from November 10, 2008 until the end of January, 2009. Lesson is divided into 9 modules: (1) Principles and Practice of Teaching in Higher Education, (2) Curriculum Development, Planning, and Implementation, (3) Classroom Management, (4) Assessment and Evaluation, (5) ICT in Higher Education Teaching and Learning, (6) Teaching in Higher Education – Methodologies and Strategies, (7) Research Techniques, (8) Research Proposal Preparation, and (9) Report Writing. As proponent, there are visiting tour to elementary and special needs school in surrounding New South Wales and doing individual research. Later, before closing ceremony, we must provide individual presentation as evaluating all lessons and also planning in our institution.

Our first day was run by ceremonial party, touring around campus, and taking our pictures to be copied in our library card. From the touring we knew that Usyd is really concern with the heritage. No wonder that there are several museum inside: Macleay Museum, Nicholson Museum, Seymour Centre, Sir Hermann Black, Tin Sheds Gallery, and War Memorial Art Gallery. The architecture of the main building (Main Quadrangle) was design based on the British Colony, Cambrige and Oxford. In the afternoon, the lunch was held in Chedi Thai Restaurant, behind the Usyd along King Street.

In my opinion, this course will be beneficial, especially for those who are lectures from non-pedagogy background. Curriculum, classroom management, and assessment & evaluation are new for me but not for methodologies teaching and research techniques. I also wondering about Report Writing (module 9) since my English was rather unsatisfying. Therefore, I plan to explore all material to bring back home. Wish me luck!