Reminiscing my elementary and high school life, I would say I grew up in a culture where cooperation is not as much enforced as competition. It is still clear in my memory how back in primary school I used to strive for achieving the top 5 in my class, for an acclaimed certificate awaits on the progress report day when I did it. This did not change much as I proceeded to high school even though the vibe was less tense than before. Despite not knowing the exact reason why Indonesians so cherish the spirit of rivalry, I guess that reflects the citizens' of this developing nation daily life. With the number of countrymen keeps growing exponentially, the work field is getting narrower each day and so people need to show their best in order not to be unemployed. I was lucky, however, to get the chance to study at a university where the teachers encouraged us to learn cooperatively. It transformed my paradigm about learning and working that eventually I myself could also helped my students do so.
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Speaking of my students, I noticed the way they learned was a little different from what I had experienced. It is true they still had this rivalry atmosphere in the class when I taught, yet they tended to support each other more. The process of learning collaboratively was also not foreign for them, which I assume had been taught well in their primary school (since I taught middle school students). My astonishment was answered as I read what Tapscott (2009) wrote in his book that they (the Generation Z) "had a natural instinct to collaborate and co-innovate" (p. 90). Due to the development of information and communication technology, this so-called digital native generation had been familiarized with the concept of working together. In addition to adolescence being the period when peers are the most influential figure in one's life, it is not a wonder then students nowadays prefer collaboration than competition. Consequently, this led them to better classroom performance and better achievement at the end of the day.
Be that as it may, there are also other factors contributing to the students' performance in the classroom namely social support in private life as well as supervisory support (Barrerra, Sandler & Ramsay; Bhantumnavian, as cited in Kiema-Junes, et al., 2020). The former includes any kind of support they receive from their family and other individuals in their inner circle while the second one is from the supervisor, which in the classroom, is the teacher. The research shows all support types contribute to one's overall engagement in work, or study (Kiema-Junes, et al., 2020). Educators then must never neglect to provide support for their pupils even though telling from the perspective of someone who was immersed in the field before, it is not that easy as pie. I even cannot write an objective evaluation of what I have done to my students. As a normal person, it was extremely hard to give each student the same equal amount of support. Anyway, I have discussed in my other entry that guidance and help to students should be differentiated as each of them requires different kinds and intensity of help. Of course more attention was given to them who were my homeroom students. To be honest, I did not have specific indicators to determine to which students should be paid attention more and so I just used my hunch. At the end of the school year, there were some who still struggled with their school life although I had tried to guide them, and on the contrary, there were also some who could make it without much of my involvement.
Writing the last sentence, I am not implying that we teachers should care less about giving support to our students. It is necessary, especially because it is the only support type we can control. We are not involved in their family life neither can we condition other students to give collegial support to a certain student. Although they just told me informally - not in a formal questionnaire paper - I can conclude even small things we do might lift their students' burden a bit, things like encouraging them about tomorrow's test, giving our ear to their seemingly-unsolvable problems talk and accompanying their performance practice. Even though not on every occasion it is shown their mood drastically changes because of our effort, who knows what is inside their heart? They do not care how much we know, but they do know how much we care. This is what I believe.
References
Kiema-Junes, H., Saarinen, A., Muukkonen, H., V€ayrynen, S., Ala-Mursula, L. & Hintsanen, M. (2020). Dimensions of social support in the experience of work engagement in middle age: A Northern Finland Birth Cohort 1966 Study. Scandinavian Journal of Psychology.
Tapscott, D. (2009). Grown up digital: How the net generation is changing your world. New York: McGraw Hill.