Physics Laboratory Investigation of Vocational High School Field Stone and Concrete Construction Techniques in the Central Java Province (Indonesia)

Abstract

The investigation aims in this study were to uncover the observations of infrastructures and physics laboratory in vocational high school for Stone and Concrete Construction Techniques Expertise Field or Teknik Konstruksi Batu dan Beton (TKBB)’s  in Purwokerto Central Java Province, mapping the Vocational High School or Sekolah Menengah Kejuruan (SMK) in the expertise field of TKBB that was there in Central Java Province, viewing the physics teacher’s profiles of  vocational high school, and the implementation of physics laboratory in vocational high school for TKBB’s expertise field. This study was focused on the Vocational High School (SMK) in expertise field of TKBB, by involving about 26 physics’ teachers (N = 26) from 13 SMK from seven districts in the Central Java Province, Indonesia, which is consisted by 6 private and 7 public SMK. The study were conducted by observations and semi-open written interview. The results are showed that 46.16% of physics’ teachers in vocational high school were not implementing the practicum in the physics learning and 53.84%  of teachers stated they were implementing the physics practicum. The reason of the teachers to did not implement the practicum were: 1. the lack of practicum equipment availability, 2. the lack of school hours, 3. the lack of ability of the teachers to design the practicum. From 14 teachers of 26 teachers who were involved in the study are stated that they were implementing the physics practicum in one semester, it is obtained the results if there were a variation of the number of practicum implementation, namely: 1 times, 2 times, 3 times and ? 4 times, by the percentage of each about: 7,14 %, 7.14%, 71.42% and 14.28%.

Keywords: vocational high school, field of stone and construction techniques, physics practicum.