During the teaching process in schools, teachers often face problems related to student behaviour. How the teachers react to said problems are often the center of attention. To that end, Dewi Purnama Sari, a student of Universitas Muhammadiyah Yogyakarta (UMY)’s Islamic Psychology Education (PPI) Postgraduate Program performed research titled “Interaction between Student and Teacher in Character Building”.

“This research is aimed to reveal how the interaction between teachers and students in character building. To reveal how the interaction between teacher and student in character building is, the researcher performed an in-depth interview with the students and teachers that fit the criteria, namely those who interact in the character building process,” Dewi stated during her Doctorate Promotional Session on Wednesday (14/08) in UMY’s Postgraduate Building.

Dewi also revealed that the interaction where teachers teach values to children regarding kindness were performed through advice, evaluation, and stories. The students were called one by one, then the teacher will wait until their emotions are calm before talking to them and asking why they did what they did and ask them to grade what they did themselves, before explaining how they should face problems, and how to act normally and give understanding.

“The interaction where teachers accustomed their students to perform kindness is an interaction that attempts to consistently guide the students by observing, reminding, providing an environment for character development, and rewarding good behaviour,” she added.

Dewi hoped that her research can be beneficial as information for teachers and others who intend to build their students’ characters and be a point of consideration for student-teacher interaction as an alternative approach to character building in schools.

Dewi Purnama Sari’s dissertation graduated as the 80th Doctor of the PPI UMY’s Postgraduate Program and UMY’s 101st overall Doctor. (CDL)