Analysis of the Implementation of Merdeka Learning Curriculum in Physics Lessons at State Senior High Schools in Bengkulu City

Rahayu

To adapt the education program to the needs and potential of students and regions, education units compile a curriculum.Therefore, the Merdeka Curriculum, which provides autonomy to learners, still refers to the national education standards to ensure the achievement of national education goals.The content, procedure, graduation qualifications, education staff, facilities and infrastructure, funding, and educational assessment are all standardized under the national education standards (Indriani et al., 2023).
Teachers, students, parents, and the government must all actively participate in the implementation of the Merdeka Curriculum in high schools (Aini & Adiyono, 2023).Therefore, the goal is to raise the standard of education in Indonesia by developing a fun and productive learning environment for students.There are still many issues with the autonomous curriculum's implementation in Indonesia.To start, teachers are not prepared to execute the curriculum.Some teachers may not understand in detail about the Merdeka Curriculum and how to teach it, so it takes a long time to get used to this new curriculum.Second, the lack of resources available to support the implementation of the Merdeka Curriculum.The resources in question can be in the form of teaching materials, learning tools, or facilities needed to teach according to the Merdeka Curriculum.Third, Lack of support from parents of students.Some parents may still not understand the importance of the Merdeka Curriculum for the development of their children, so they do not provide sufficient support for the implementation of this curriculum.
Fourth, there is a lack of coordination between schools in implementing the Merdeka Curriculum.Some schools may have different learning methods, which can make it difficult for students who move to other schools to get used to different learning methods.To overcome these problems, integrated and consistent efforts are needed from the government, teachers, students, parents, and schools.Thus, it is hoped that an effective and enjoyable learning process can be created for students, thus improving the quality of education in Indonesia.
Indonesian curricula are subject to frequent modifications.From the 2013 curriculum to the current Merdeka curriculum, starting with the KTSP curriculum.It goes without saying that this curricular modification affects how kids learn.From initially using the old curriculum to the new curriculum.With this curriculum change, of course, students and teachers must readjust their learning patterns to the changes in the existing curriculum.Of course, by attending several curriculum workshops for teachers to better understand the independent curriculum that will later be used to convey to students (Wanti & Chastanti, 2023).
Every curriculum has a distinct set of courses.The 2013 curriculum places a strong emphasis on pupils' creative activity.In the meanwhile, one of the goals of the autonomous curriculum is for students to learn how to construct their Pancasila student character profile.The fundamental structure of the assigned competencies is where the 2013 curriculum and the autonomous curriculum diverge.There is greater flexibility for educational units to modify instruction to meet the requirements of students thanks to the framework of the autonomous curriculum on learning in the assessment of teaching tools and curriculum tools.
The factors that cause curriculum changes include the dynamic development and changes between one nation and another.The development of industry and production or technology.The rapid progress in the field of technology must be addressed quickly, so that the output of educational institutions is not neglected.So far, education has been more directed at achieving as much material as possible rather than achieving a certain ability or competence so that the output is less qualified than other countries (Rojabiyah & Setiawan, 2019).
Curriculum modifications can affect educational quality in both positive and bad ways.One benefit is that pupils may pick up knowledge by keeping up with the ever-evolving times.Rapid curriculum changes have a detrimental effect on pupils by creating new issues including falling student success as the kids are unable to adapt to the new curriculum's learning method (Kurniawan, 2017).Giving schools the authority to evaluate student learning outcomes in light of process standards and the autonomous learning and assessment tenets is part of implementing merdeka learning.According to Permendikbud No. 22 of 2016 concerning Process Standards for Primary and Secondary Education, learning must take place in an environment that supports each student's creativity, initiative, and independence while also taking into account their individual talents, interests, and physical and psychological development.Teachers need to understand the concepts of learning and evaluation in the new paradigm of learning because design learning is a process that is highly significant and promotes learning accomplishment.
There are several demands of the independent curriculum that are different from the previous curriculum.These demands can be seen from several perspectives, including through the principles of learning and assessment.The learning principle states that before the learning process is carried out, educators need to make a plan that considers the level of development and achievement of students.Planning itself also needs to pay attention to aspects of relevance, competence, environment, context, and culture around students and the planning and learning process must be future-oriented.The next domain is assessment which has five demands.These demands include assessment is an integrated part of the learning process, facilitates learning, and is feedback for students and parents; assessment is designed according to its function; assessment is fair, proportional, valid, and reliable; progress reports are simple and informative; and the demands of assessment results are used for reflection and improvement of the quality of subsequent learning (Munzir & Widodo, 2023).
The implementation of an independent curriculum can run well if the learning process reviews the diversity of students.Therefore, the independent curriculum emphasizes learning using a differentiated learning approach.Differentiated learning is a system whose learning process pays close attention to the diversity of learners, starting from readiness, interests, learning styles, abilities, to the needs of these learners (Aprima & Sari, 2022).Differentiated learning believes that all learners who enter the classroom have the potential to succeed from one another (Salar & Turgut, 2021).
The role of teachers in carrying out a review of the characteristics of each learner has a strong relevance to the independent curriculum.The independent curriculum issued in 2022 through the Decree of the Minister of Education, Culture, Research and Technology of the Republic of Indonesia Number 56 / M / 2022 has several important points.One of them is the implementation of a learner-oriented learning process, education and teaching are not only linked to knowledge / intellect but need to pay attention to the components of the attitudinal and psychomotor domains, during the learning process it must adjust the characteristics of students, especially with their potentials (Ainia, 2020).
The diversity of these students can be seen from various sides ranging from interest, readiness, ability, learning needs, to talent (Susilowati, 2022).It is hoped that in the future students will have a character that is not only intelligent in the cognitive world but has a virtuous character and is able to develop better skills and abilities (Hutabarat et al., 2022).
Physics is a science specialization subject that emphasizes natural phenomena and their measurement with an expansion on abstract concepts covering several aspects.In this case, the researchers analyzed the implementation of the independent curriculum for the Physics subject.The results obtained are that there are obstacles in the implementation of the independent curriculum.In the independent curriculum, there are additional character development subjects of the Pancasila profile so that there are several elective subjects whose learning time will be cut and later the cut hours are used to study P5.In this case, the researcher analyzes whether the existence of an independent curriculum affects teaching and learning in physics lessons.Which we know for ourselves that learning Physics takes a long time for students to understand the material because the material is quite difficult and students who do not understand physics subjects.

B. Research Methods
This type of research is a descriptive qualitative research with research instruments consisting of literature study, observation, and interviews.This research uses the needs analysis stage.This research was conducted at SMAN 8 Bengkulu City.Class X science high school students and physics teachers participated in this research.At the needs analysis stage, the data collection techniques used were literature studies, observation data, and interviews.This research was conducted in November-February.
Descriptive qualitative research is characterized by its descriptive nature and use of qualitative data.Events, occurrences, and social situations are frequently the subject of this kind of qualitative descriptive data analysis.By directing from the individual background as a whole (holistic) and without separating persons and organizations in variables but instead seeing them as a component of a whole, this descriptive research process generates descriptive data in the form of written or spoken words from the people and actors seen.The methods employed for gathering data included needs surveys, interviews, school inspections, and literature reviews.Qualitative data analysis is employed in the data analysis approach.Journals, observation sheets, and interview sheets made up the research tools.
Using qualitative analysis techniques is the research's approach of data analysis.Combining descriptive and qualitative data analysis methodologies results in the qualitative descriptive data analysis approach.Data for qualitative data analysis comes from a variety of sources.Additionally diverse are the data gathering methods, which are used repeatedly until the data is saturated.An inductive analysis of qualitative data is one that starts with the data collected and ends with the development of a hypothesis or a particular connection pattern.

JENTIK ABDIGERMAS
The very small number of replies, which undoubtedly does not accurately reflect the reality, is one of the study's weaknesses.The information that respondents supply in interviews occasionally may not accurately reflect their thoughts, both during and after the data gathering process.Differences in comprehension and honesty considerations are the cause of this.

C. Result and Discussion
Through direct observation, surveys, and interview activities, field research activities may uncover the needs analysis for the implementation of the Merdeka curriculum.Surveys can also uncover the needs analysis for the independent curriculum.According to the findings of interviews with six students from SMAN 8 Bengkulu City and two physics professors from class X, the implementation of this curriculum is still relatively new, thus there are still a lot of challenges in physics classes right now.
So in this implementation later we will analyze the difficulties and effects of the independent curriculum on physics lessons in class X.In running the new curriculum, of course, there are still many unknown things.As well as how to adjust to curriculum changes.
This research is supported by several studies, namely: (1) research that obtained the results that the independent curriculum has a lot of obstacles applied to physics lessons (2) research that obtained the results that the existence of an independent curriculum makes physics lessons easier because there is less material learning.The implication of this research is that it can find out the results of the needs analysis of the constraints on the implementation of the independent curriculum.So from the needs analysis we can re-analyze the implementation of the independent curriculum learning in physics lessons.
According to the researchers' own experiences with the study process, there are a number of limitations that need to be taken into consideration for future research by researchers who want to refine their work.Two of the drawbacks are that the data gathering procedure occasionally results in information from respondents that does not accurately reflect their ideas, and the limited number of respondents means that the data does not accurately capture the real situation.

D. Conclusion
Based on the findings and discussion in this study, it is clear that in order to determine how the new curriculum modifications are implemented, it is important to analyze the challenges and impacts of the autonomous learning curriculum's implementation in physics lectures.

E. Acknowledgement
I express my gratitude to Dr. Iwan Setiawan, M.Sc., the Coordinator of the Physics Education Study Program, Dr. Eko Risdianto, M.Cs., the Primary Supervisor, and Mr. Dedy Hamdani, M.Si., the Co-Supervisor, for your invaluable guidance and direction in guiding me through the completion of this needs analysis.Next, I would like to express my gratitude to the physics instructor and all of the class X students at SMAN 02, SMAN 06, and SMAN 08 Bengkulu City who agreed to take part in the interviews and needs analysis survey.
Analysis of the Implementation of Merdeka Learning Curriculum in Physics Lessons at State Senior High Schools in Bengkulu City IJOPATE: Indonesian Journal of Pedagogy and Teacher Education Vol 1, No 2, pp 33-37 2023