Attractive learning has become the essential focus of our mission as teachers. When we talk about the method of class learning, we always focus on how the stimulus can make our learning attractive and creative. Today, in this era, student-centered learning has become the essential focus. This refers to how we foster critical, creative and active learning in our students.

In my civic education class on the theme of ideology,  I tried to evoke students’ interest with the questions : What does ideology without the state look like and what does the state look like without ideology? These are simple questions, but with these questions, our students came up with a lot of ideas, concepts and they even discovered new ideas about the relationship of ideology and the state.

These questions are not enough, but we must facilitate a creative method in order to foster creative thinking in our students with four steps.

Firstly, students must explore the meaning of ideology from book references, for example : Machiavelli said that ideology practices political system, which  aims to achieve legitimation and prevent legitimation becoming the status quo. Althuser said that ideology is the principle of life. With this exploration, students can discover new ideas or new concepts about ideology.

Secondly, teachers provide stimulus with the questions : What does ideology without the state look like and what does the state look like without ideology? They then facilitate a group discussion among the students, and the students share what they found from personal brainstorming and reading book references. In this moment, every student shares their opinions in answer to the question, they share opinions on what they found out about the relationship of ideology and the state.

For example : students gave their opinions on ideology without the state, like faith without action. And the state without ideology like action without faith. Some students said that ideology without the state, results in only values without policy and if this happened there would be conflict among society because nothing would be organized and many aspirations would be lost. They pointed out that a state without ideology would be like a state without goals.

Thirdly, after sharing opinions among the students, students have the opportunity to give their opinion, statement, or constructive criticism on other students opinions. For example : I like Edo’s statement because a state without ideology is like a state without goals and misses the essential values of the state. Besides that, a state without ideology can result in social conflict, because every person can pressure others to achieve their personal goals.

Fourthly, one or two students create a summary and reflection on the discussion and present the summary in front of the class.

This method helps the students to find new ideas and new concepts by listening to other students, and this method is very effective in supporting critical and creative thinking in our students’ learning. One head, one more inspiration makes learning more attractive and helps to explore new ideas from our students.