In 2013, the Indonesian government published 2013 curriculum. One of the characteristics of 2013 curriculum is the use of Scientific Approach (SA). SA consists of observing, questioning, exploring, associating, and communicating. However, the implementation of 2013 curriculum brings up some controversies. This research is conducted to explore more about the implementation of SA to teach English in junior high schools. The objectives of the research are to explore and describe: 1) the teachers’ attitudes towards the implementation of SA; 2) how it is implemented in English class; 3) what the problems the teachers encountered; and 4) how the teachers solve the problems.
The sources of the data of this case study are respondents, events, and documents. The respondents of this research are three teachers from SMP N 4 Surakarta, SMP N 12 Surakarta, and SMP Al Islam Surakarta, and the students of those teachers. The respondents are chosen through purposive sampling. The events are the teaching and learning processes. The documents analyzed are the syllabus and the lesson plan of English subject of 2013 curriculum, and the teachers’ profile. The techniques of collecting the data are observation, interview, questionnaire, and documentation. To analyze the data, the model proposed by Miles and Hubermen was used.
The findings demonstrate that: (1) Most of the teachers have a positive attitude toward the implementation of SA; (2) The implementation of SA from the three teachers is not rigidly appropriate with the theory. Some steps are often skipped by the teachers due to a certain condition. The teachers also do not always implement it when they teach. ; (3) The biggest problems are encountered in the questioning and associating step, there are also some little problems in other steps. In questioning, the students cannot ask a critical question. For associating, the teachers have difficulty to differentiate activities in the step of experimenting and associating; (4) For the questioning step, the teachers attempts to guide the students to ask. However, it is still difficult to implement. The problem in associating step is still unsolved since the problem is in the teachers’ belief.
Since it is a case study, the findings cannot be generalized. Although it cannot be generalized, the findings may provide an overview of the implementation of SA and the teachers’ attitude toward it.
Keywords: teachers’ attitudes, 2013 Curriculum, Scientific Approach, case study.