Integrating Business Skills into KTSP-Based ELT of Secondary 12

Mierza Miranti, Educator and Professional Development Manager of Sugar Group Schools

Abstract – Entrepreneurship education has been widely discussed in terms of its chances of being integrated into a curriculum, even as the basis of it. As for KTSP (Kurikulum Tingkat Satuan Pendidikan) or literally translated to Learning-Unit Based Curriculum, the currently applied curriculum in Indonesia, it seems that the issue does not take a considerable portion. However, the possibility of integrating the values, topic, business skills, and even projects is opened in the field of English Language Teaching or ELT that has flexible nature in the curriculum. Thus, in this paper, the integration of business skills is further discussed from the planning to possible practices applied in secondary 12 ELT process. It is ended with evaluation and further example of integration that can be done in ELT for the other levels.

Keyword: business skills, integration, ELT, KTSP

1. Introduction

It is considered a challenge to integrate business skills into language subject within the KTSP

(Kurikulum Tingkat Satuan Pendidikan), which can be literally translated to Learning-Unit

Based Curriculum. The demand of creating meaningful learning seems to be a daunting task

when it comes to teaching a national examination preparation class, namely secondary-

twelve. The urge of having to merely drills the students to pass the examination might give an

ease for teachers who prefer to teach only to face the exam. Then, meaningful classroom

activities would be something to be left alone in the dark.

However, taking a deeper look on the given one-size-fit-all curriculum set by the Department

of Education and Culture of Indonesia, teachers can make a difference to educational

processes undergone by the students. The KTSP actually only sets the minimum

requirements – or in language classroom, it is called skills – to be delivered to the students.

This would mean that teachers have the flexibility to modify the contents and make it more

individualized, meaningful, and purposeful. Not to mention the ones who teach, as the writer’s

condition at the moment, secondary-twelve students.

This paper would like to put forward an idea of integrating business skills into English

Language Teaching (ELT). It would not take the idea nor having the word entrepreneurship in

the title since the application took place in a company-owned school. The school’s main

objective is to provide the need of the company to prepare candidates who will run the

business in the future. Nevertheless, not all students will be considered eligible to work for the

company since some of them might not be able to meet the expected standard of

achievement. In some circumstances, some of them might also choose to be self-employed

instead of working in a company. Therefore, the integration of business skills into ELT was

done: to prepare professionals of the future in the field of business, both as employees well as

entrepreneurs

2. Business Skills

Business skills, as the name suggests, are sets of competences, attitudes, and knowledge

that qualify an individual to be successful in any of commercial activities and the ones related

to it (Grundy & Brown, 2004; Waterhouse & Crook, 1995; Curriculum Planning and

Development Division of MInistry of Education of Singapore, 2008). It covers such a broad

aspects from theory to practice in order to help the entity involved in the field excelled in

achiving the goals set in the beginning.

A more theoritical approach of the skills is the ones pointed out by the Curriculum Planning

and Development Division of MInistry of Education of Singapore (2008). It views the elements

of business skills that rely more on the knowledge. Students are then lead to the familiarity

with the purposes and types of business, career opportunities in business industries, business

resources, the unlimited needs and wants versus limited resources, financial resources

management, as well as the nature of business management along with the nature of

competition. These skills or knowledge are considered important in building successul

entrepreneurs of the future. Therefore, making the students getting to know more about them

is important to be done at the school level.

In addition, Pearson & Thomas (2004) divide business skills into three main parts, i.e.

personal development, management, and business development. These essential elements, if

carefully done in meaningful and holistic manners, will establish a strong foundation of

entrepreneurs and business persons who are able to reach successes in their personal,

managerial, and business aspects.

Furthermore, Grundy & Brown (2004) argues that the business skills are not to be viewed in

segregated approach. The skills of business – such as strategy, marketing, commercial

management, operating, finance, leadership, organizational, problem-solving, and self-

management – are actually multifaceted and interrelated.

From the theory to practice, it becomes a mutual agreement on a view saying that the

knowledge of business will not really works if there are no skills invoved. Equaly, having the

capacity to lead and innovate would become ineffective if ones would like to be involeved in

business, without having the necessary skills to get into it. Learning and developing the skills

should be profound and real-world related, as well as unified, if success is the goal that wants

to be achieved.

3. The ELT of Secondary 12 in KTSP

Indonesian curriculum has undergone various kinds of changes in the attempts of achieving

the best method and practices to develop best potential of its students. The first curriculum

was launched in 1989, and then the next one is in 1994, and 1999. Furthermore, education

professionals got more thrills when the new curriculum was set as Competency Based

Curriculum (KBK – Kurikulum Berbasis Kompetensi) applied in 1994. Finally, the one

discussed in this paper is the current one – KSTP – that has been being applied since 2006

based on the PP (Peraturan Pemerintah: Government Regulation – writer) No. 99/2005. At

the time of this paper was written, the government was planning to apply the new set of

curriculum, replacing KTSP. The latter mentioned curriculum, however, will not be further

discussed here.

KTSP is an alleged result of improvement of the previous national curriculum –KBK – which

was claimed to fail in accommodating the variety of culture and conditions in Indonesia

(Ambarsari, 1994). This curriculum is claimed to have some advantages comparing to the

previous ones, especially on some aspects of application as it promotes the school autonomy.

It also encourages the learning units to creatively develop the curriculum based on the needs

of the students and even the demands of globalization (Hanafie, 2007).

As for the business skills, the writer chose Pearson & Thomas’s (2004) to be integrated with

the ELT process. The literature divides the skills into three major parts and distribute them into

different sub-categories as follow:

Personal development, which covers the way to get into high achievement, time

management, personal effectiveness, leadership, team building, solving problems and

decision making, innovation, effective communication skill, mentoring/ coaching, personal

marketing, and public relation.

Management skills, which includes the capacity to understand finance, human resources

management, and competitive marketing strategy.

Business development, which comprises of strategies for growth and preparing a

business plan, through the buying and selling of unquoted companies, and through the

management buy-ins and buy-outs.

Since this paper analyzes the application of the planning which took place in the first semester

of secondary-twelve, followings are the standard of competency and the chosen basic

requirements of English to be integrated with business skills:

“KTSP” CURRICULUM FOR SEMESTER 1 GRADE XII HIGH SCHOOL

Standard of Competency Basic Competencies

Listening Comprehend meanings in short

functional texts and monologs in

forms of narrative and discussion in

daily life contexts.

To respond to meanings in monologs utilizing a variety

of accurate, fluent, and acceptable spoken language in

daily life contexts in narrative and discussion texts.

Speaking

To express meanings in short

functional texts and monologs in

forms of narrative and discussion

texts in daily life contexts.

To express meanings in monologs utilizing a variety of

spoken language on an accurate, fluent, and acceptable

manner in daily life contexts in narrative and discussion

texts.

“KTSP” CURRICULUM FOR SEMESTER 1 GRADE XII HIGH SCHOOL

Standard of Competency Basic Competencies

Reading

To comprehend meanings of short

functional texts and essays in forms

of narrativeand discussion in daily

life context and to access

knowledge as well.

To respond to meanings and rhetorical stages in essays

utilizing a variety of written language on an accurate,

fluent, acceptable manner in daily life contexts and to

access knowledge in texts of narrative and discussion.

Writing

Exposing meanings in written

monologs in forms of narrative and

discussion on accurate, fluent, and

acceptable manners in daily life

contexts.

Exposing meanings and rhetorical stages in written

monologs utilizing a variety of written language on an

accurate, fluent, acceptable manner in daily life contexts

in texts of narrative and discussion.

4. The Integration

The writer works in a school applying KTSP. She also believes that teachers can design the

best plan for their class using this curriculum because of the flexible characteristics. This idea

is also supported by Hanafi (2008) that says the curriculum have some better advantages in

compare to the previous ones. The focus is on some aspects of application as it promotes the

school autonomy. It also encourages teachers to creatively develop the curriculum based on

the needs of the students and even the demands of globalization.

As for English, even though the curriculum suggests to have the four language skills: writing,

reading, speaking, and listening, the writer believes that teachers are not supposed to

separate the strands of language. Some activities, of course, are sometimes combined

together to achieve communication goals – which are known as the three main strains of a

language, i.e. oral communication, written communication, and visual communication. Yet, in

business, these strains are also important part of communication skill.

Since the duration of the application is only less than a semester, the business skills to be

integrated are only partially taken. The benchmark of selection is the suitability with the

English skills required to be mastered. In semester one of secondary-twelve syllabus, there

are actually three types of text to be learnt, i.e. narrative, explanation, and discussion. Yet, the

English genres taken were only narrative and discussion texts. The major topic utilized was

actually about Glocal Poverty. The other type of text, explanation, was not part of the

integration because the function was to explain a social movement that can cause poverty. It

serves as the basic knowledge for the next learnt type of text. Following is the abridged

sequence of integration.

The Integration of Secondary 12 ELT and Business Skills

Integrated Business

Skills Classroom Activities

Narr

ative:

The P

lay f

or

Perf

orm

ance

Personal development:

time management,

leadership, team

building, solving

problems and decision

making, innovation,

effective communication

skill, personal

marketing, and public

relation.

Management skills:

understanding finance,

human resources

management, and

competitive marketing

strategy.

Business development:

strategies for growth

and preparing a

business plan.

Creating a short story Poverty in pairs that was

made into a play for performance in the topic of

Glocal.

Preparing the performance including financing the

event, preparing the performance and every detail

it needed, as well as promoting it. Conducting and

evaluating the performance

Dis

cussio

n T

ext:

The B

est P

rogra

m to C

om

bat P

overt

y

Working in groups of three or four students to

discuss the best program to offer to the

community to help the poor getting out of the

cycle of poverty in a form of mind map.

Presenting the program individually in a form of

speech

Writing a discussion text to find out the pros and

cons of their own program.

Conducting a public hearing to present their

program and persuade the other students who

stand as the opposed group to join, donate, or

participate in the program.

a. Activity One: Narrative – The Play for Performance

As required in the curriculum that the types of text to be learnt is narrative, then the first

thing that the students did was to create narratives. Since it had been introduced in the

Snapshot of the performance

Snapshot of the performance

The Mind map

previous level, secondary eleven, the focus was on how to make the work more theatrical

since it would be used as the synopsis of the play. After the synopsis was finished, the

students made a group of 10-12 to arrange a theatrical performance.

The first business skill the students acquired during this

first step was the human resources management. It

even surfaced at the time they had to deal with

analyzing which roles to be given to their peers. The

leadership skill was also gained here as they had to

clearly communicate the goals based on their roles to

their peers. For example, a stage manager had to make

sure that all of his/ her instructions were clear and done. Even for the designers, for

example make-up artists, they also had to make sure that the actors who would be treated

would be there on time as requested and along with the makeup asked to be brought–

since they could not afford to provide professional make-up.

Along the way of preparation, the students learnt some other personal development

business skills such as team building, solving problems and decision making, innovation,

and effective communication skill within the group. To ensure that the students really

understand that these soft skills were also measured, an objective rubric assessing the

affective aspects of the learning was introduced and utilized.

Besides working with the group, the students also explored the other skills of personal

marketing and public relation, as well as competitive marketing strategy, when they had to

persuade the school community to attend and watch their performance. Along with that,

they also learnt how to understand finance management since a budget was set in the

beginning so that every group would not make any purchase or expenses that went

beyond the number. For sure that time management was strongly learnt here since the

very beginning as the timeline was also closely monitored.

b. Activity Two: Discussion Text – The Best Program to Combat Poverty

The second series of program started with an elicitation stage

where the students sit in a group of four to brainstorm their

ideas. They sit together to find four best programs if they

were trusted to run a non-profit organization as they are

requested to work hand in hand with the government. The

challenge given was that they were given a certain number

as their budget had to face the citizen who went against their

ideas.

Brainstorming

Data search!

Screenshot of the public speakers

The Debate!

On this phase, the students were actually practicing their business

development skills namely strategies for growth and preparing a

business plan. At the same time, they were also developing their

personal business competence i.e. team building, solving problems

and decision making, as well as innovation and the competence of

understanding finance.

After the mind map had been done, students then started drafting

their discussion text to find the pros and cons of their programs. By

having the list of the pros and cons, students continued their

learning process with browsing for information and searching for

valid data in the Learning Resource Center of the school. It must be

done before started the writing process to support the arguments in

the discussion text essay they were going to make. It was quite an ease for a secondary-

twelve English teacher to teach this type of text since in they had got the skills of building

arguments and browsing for valid data when they were secondary eleven in a lesson

called invention. Then, after all the data and references had been browsed to support their

argument, they started to compose their writing. At that instance, the students were

learning the business skill of solving problems and decision making.

Using writing and data they had browsed, students then got ready for the next phase:

giving speech. It would be based on their writing and situated in a café competed with the

microphone and banners of the school. The set was

actually to support the mood of their program (and

their own) importance. Before getting on the stage, a

model speech session was held. In that session, one

group sent one of their representatives whom they

think was able to be their role model of a good public

speaker. Those public speakers were then evaluated

to give the students some ideas on how to speak in public. The ones who commented and

gave input to the speakers were their own classmates, using a rubric that had been

distributed a day before. For sure, the purpose was to build the business skill of effective

communication and public relation.

The series of activities was then ended by a debate.

But, of course before the debate, there was a

session taking a 40-minutes period to equip the

students with the skills and expressions needed. The

way of facilitating the session was not merely

presenting it but started with an elicitation stage.

Since the school applied English-speaking environment outside the classroom, it was quite

easy to elicit the expressions they would use for the debate. What the teacher did was only

to ensure that they said it correctly since it was still in an English classroom. On the d-day,

the groups put forward their idea of the programs and try to convince the audience who

acted as the society. By having this activity, the students were expected to acquire the

skills of solving problems and decision making, innovation, effective communication skill,

personal marketing, and public relation.

Finally, after the series of activities were accomplished, a reflection was conducted with the

members of the class. It was a splendid moment to bring out a discussion on the skills they

acquired during the series of activities. This was also an important time for teachers to find

out whether they already achieved the expected competencies. After the short discussion,

short and simple checklist papers of business skills assessment were distributed to be

filled in. Then, teacher might take her turn to open another discussion on what additional

business skills were integrated and share more with the students on the benefits.

5. The Reflection

Integrating business skills into English language teaching can be a way to give more to the

students having the national curriculum that seems to focus on the cognitive aspects. The

skills that are expected to help students to be successful individuals in the future, however,

will be effective to be delivered by having to consider the following aspects:

1. Planning the integration carefully, especially in selecting the activities to achieve the skills.

2. Keeping a good time-management to ensure that all objectives can be achieved

punctually.

3. Giving continuous individualized assessment to ensure that the students have the equal

right to grasp the knowledge and skill.

4. Try to always elicit questions to discover whether the learners have achieved the learning

objectives and acquire the expected skills.

Paying attention to – at least – the aforementioned points, might lead to a successful

integration in a lesson at that moment. However, it would be to naïve to say that by having this

integration in one lesson in one semester, the students would automatically develop business

skills that support their path to be successful individual in the future. It looks promising but

extremely challenging.

Thus, to achieve the objective of successful and – hopefully – sustainable development of

business skills in the future, a unit-based integration is needed. It does not have to be

systemic, especially if the schools apply the standardized national curriculum. Conducting the

integration in the same subject for the whole three consecutive years of secondary schools or

other learning unit might produce better result.

In English Language Teaching, for example, there are so many example of integration that

can be taken into practice. In secondary 10, students can learn read, discuss, and perform a

biography of successful entrepreneurs to be integrated in the lesson of recount text. Another

example might take place in an English classroom of secondary 11 that learns about

exposition text in which at the same time the language learning objective is achieved, the

students also learn how to persuade audience to buy their words as part of direct marketing

system.

As a final point, being in a system that applies the one-size-fit-all curriculum that said to

produce employees-mindset is not a dead-end. Future entrepreneurs and successful

business individuals can still be expected to be born in this kind of educational system. What

can be done by the ones involved in it is to do more than what is just written in the curriculum.

Setting and planning meaningful activities that sharpen the business skills are strongly

needed, with close mentoring and supervision, to produce the expected outcome.

References

Curriculum Planning and Development Division of MInistry of Education of Singapore. (2008). Elements of Business Skills for Upper Secondary. Singapore: Pearson Education South Asia Pte Ltd. Depdiknas, 2002. Manajemen Peningkatan Mutu Berbasis Sekolah. Jakarta: Direktorat Jenderal Pendidikan Dasar dan Menengah Grundy, T., & Brown, L. (2004). The Ultimate Book of Business Skills: The 100 Most Important Things for Being Successful in Business. Cornwal: Capstone Publishing Limited (A Wiley Company). Pearson, B., & Thomas, N. (2004). The Sorter MBA: A Practical Approach to Key Business Skills. Scotland: Harper Collins Publishers. Sutriono & Hanafie, Rita. 2007. Filsafat Ilmu dan Metodologi Penelitian. Yogyakarta: Andi Waterhouse, M., & Crook, G. (1995). Management and Business Skills in a Built Environment. London: Chapman and Hall.

Mierza Miranti is currently an English teacher and Professional Development Manager of Sugar Group Schools & Polytechnic. She has published some works related to her interest in ELT, writing, and other educational issues.