An Analysis of Learning Management Based on Merdeka Belajar Curriculum in Teaching Students Writing Skill of the Eighth Grade of SMP Negeri 2 Dharma Caraka Gunungsitoli Selatan in 2023/2024

ABSTRACT


Introduction
Education is critical for improving the quality of human resources.Its elements include curriculum, objectives, materials, methods, educators, students, facilities, tools, and approaches (Hidayat et al. 2019:27-29).The education system that governs these elements is referred to as the curriculum, which consists of four main components: goals to be achieved, teaching content or materials, teaching methods, and evaluations used to measure the results of the teaching process according to Hakim, Z. A., & Hamzah, M. F. (2022).
Furthermore, the curriculum has undergone various improvements.The ministry of education has changed the curriculum from Curriculum 2013 become Merdeka Belajar Curriculum.The implementation of Merdeka Belajar Curriculum has been inaugurated by government regulation number 22 of 2023.The Merdeka Belajar curriculum is an educational system that improves the learning process beyond the traditional classroom and textbook approach then emphasizes the developing of students' critical thinking skills, creativity and promoting lifelong learning with Pancasila characteristics.(Kemendikbudristek Number 12 of 2024).
In addition, English learning achievements based on Kemendikbudristek (2022) reveals that there are six skills element of language they are listening, speaking, reading, viewing, writing, and presenting.One of the most important skill namely writing skill.Writing is the ability to convey communicates ideas, express creativity, and create in various genres of written texts in an effective and understandable way and interest to readers with the right organizational structure and linguistic elements, Kemendikbudristek (2022).The Merdeka Belajar curriculum program requires students to have a proficient understanding of various text genres, such as narratives, descriptions, procedures, advertisements, and authentic texts.Therefore, the students should achieve the learning goals in the end of the phase (Kemendikbudristek, 2022).However, in reality writing still become the most difficult skill for students.
Based on the phenomenon, the student's difficulties, and the students' lack of writing ability, become a challenge and English teacher responsibility.Teacher is a factor that plays a significant role and frontline in determining the quality and achievement of learning desires.Therefore, it is crucial for the teacher to prioritize achieving educational goals and learning desires.Supported by Carolus in Gulo (2023), the teacher is the spearhead of the implementation of education and very influential party in the learning process.So, in simple terms it means that the effectiveness of a teacher has a big impact on how well their students perform academically.The ability of teacher in managing the learning mention as teacher performance, which become part of teacher competencies called as pedagogic competence.Then, teacher must have potentials in design learning, such as preparing teaching programs such as syllabi, design learning plan, design strategic and methods of teaching, design the use of media, approaches and learning models, and design the assessments in a time allocation that will be carried out in a certain period to achieve the specified goals (Hidayat, 2019;88-89).
Therefore, the successful of learning depends on the quality of learning management.According to James A. F Stoner, learning management is an activity that includes three points, namely planning, implementing, and evaluating learning outcomes.In conclusion, learning management is one of the main keys to achieve the learning goals especially writing skill, (Jaini, 2021:2).The successful learning can be realized if it is determined by the quality of management, because the better quality of teaching management so the more effective the learning targets can be achieved.Therefore, due to the existence of Merdeka Belajar curriculum, the teachers need to have effective teaching strategies and must be able to optimize students' writing skills through the skill of management the learning process.Because specifically learning management refers to planning, implementing, and evaluation of learning and consists of some components such as teaching techniques, methods, approach, and media using in teaching.Therefore, English learning must be integrated with the new curriculum in a practical and relevant context, so that teaching can be more interesting and provide meaning for learners.
Based on the phenomenon, and explanation of exiting theory above, the researcher interested to ask critical research questions namely; 1) How is the management of learning plan based on Merdeka Belajar Curriculum in teaching students' writing skills?2) How is the management of teaching students' writing skills based on Merdeka Belajar Curriculum? 3) How is the management of evaluation towards student writing skill based on Merdeka Belajar Curriculum?

Method
This study use qualitative analysis, with descriptive approach which focuses on understanding the three stages of learning management based on Merdeka Belajar curriculum.Qualitative research is to comprehend a variety of phenomena, including behavior; perception, motivation, and action, on a deeper level (Fiantika et al., 2022:5).Furthermore, the research informants were consists of two English teachers and 27 students of class VIII-D.The data collected through the observations of learning devices provided and observed the learning process, then interviews the both of English teachers, also collected the documentations of students' written recount text.Therefore, the researcher collecting the data using instruments such as observation sheet checklist, structure interview by using interview sheet guideline, and documentation.Then, the data were analyzed using Miles and Huberman's theory through data condensation, presentation, and conclusion drawing.Additionally, after collecting the data the researcher analyzed the observation results based on the completeness criteria of the analysis documents in teaching planning and implementation, as follows:

Result and Discussion
The Management of Learning Planning The English teacher manages the learning planning by providing an ATP (Flow of Learning Objectives) and an MA (Learning Module), with the ten components of the ATP specified in Curriculum Standards Agency (2022).These include the ATP identity, learning outcomes in one phase, learning objectives with materials, general learning objectives, CP (Learning Objectives), prepared collaboratively with time allocation, containing the Pancasila student profile, general learning activities or stages, assessment, references, and information about strengthening the Pancasila profile.The researcher analyzed the components of the ATP and provided detailed information about the completeness of the components of the ATP provided namely as follow:

No
The Indicator of ATP Completeness Score 1.
Including the identity of the ATP such as author identity, the name of education unit and subject, class, year and semester and total lesson hours 40 2.
Including the Learning Outcomes in one phase 100 3.
Including the learning objectives to complete one phase by providing material.100 4.
Including the general learning objective 100 5.
Including the Flow of CP (Learning Objectives) prepared collaboratively and includes time allocation, 100 6.Contain Pancasila student profile 100 7.
Contain the general learning activities or stages 100 8.
Contain the references/student learning resources 100 10.
Contain information about the Pancasila profile and focus on achieving CP. 100 Average 94 The analysis of the ATP completeness indicates that the English teacher's ATP meets the completeness criteria set by Curriculum Standards Agency (2022), and has a high completeness score with an average of 94.In addition, the analysis of the Learning Module (MA) provided by both English teachers was based on the Ministry of Culture, Education, Research, and Technology No. 262 of 2022, which specifies three main components of a learning module: general information, core components, and appendices -each consisting of smaller elements.The researcher analyzed the completeness of the learning module provided and created a comparison table as follows: Based on the table of learning module completeness, it can be identified that the learning module 1 by Teacher A has a better completeness level with an average score of 87.5, while Teaching Module 2 by Teacher B has an average completeness score of 84.37.Therefore, the based on the results above the researcher reveals that the modified module can be developed into a learning book.

The Management of Teaching Writing Skill
The provided information states that both English teachers conducted teaching activities in accordance with the learning guidelines set by the Curriculum Standard Process (2022), which includes three components of teaching management: opening, core activities, and closing.In addition, the English teachers integrated principles of teaching based on the Merdeka curriculum in their teaching, which is regulated in Regulation of the Minister of Education & culture Number 16 of 2022.The Merdeka Curriculum is a new curriculum introduced by the Indonesian Minister of Education as an alternative to restore the condition of education in Indonesia after the COVID-19 pandemic.The curriculum provides flexibility to schools and teachers in exploring according to the needs of the school, especially the needs of students.The observation results based on the learning principles regulated in Permendikbudristek Number 16 of 2022, article 9-18, are presented in a table as follows: Based on the table of Merdeka Curriculum implementation principles, it can be identified that both English teachers have applied the fifth principles of Merdeka Curriculum teaching along with their elements.English Teacher A has implemented writing learning based on those principles with a total of 12 teaching principle elements.Meanwhile, English Teacher B has implemented 11 teaching principle elements.

Management of Evaluating
In management of evaluating, the English teachers conducted assessments by implementing three kinds of assessments, namely diagnostic assessment, formative assessment, and summative assessment.Diagnostic assessment is a test conducted by a teacher at the beginning of the learning process.The test is carried out to obtain initial information about the students' cognitive abilities.Meanwhile, formative assessment is a test conducted during the learning process.The formative tests can take the form of student assignments given by the teacher after the end of the learning process, or during the teaching and learning process.Based on observations that have been conducted, the English teachers have conducted formative assessments to students at every meeting.The last one is summative assessment, which is an assessment conducted by teachers to find out students' learning outcomes over a period.

The Management of learning plan based on Merdeka Belajar Curriculum in teaching students' writing skills
Based on the research result above, the researcher found that both of English teacher analyzing CP, and determining the learning outcomes, before making the ATP and MA with each components.Then, after analyzed the learning devices, the researcher presented the completeness of teaching module in the form of a diagram namely as follows:

The management of evaluation towards students writing skill based on Merdeka Belajar curriculum
Accordance with the results the English teacher implemented three assessments in teaching namely diagnostic, formative, and summative.Related to the documentation of formative assessment, the researcher analyzed the results of the students' recount text that had been assessed by the teacher.The researcher found minor errors in the students' recount texts, such as errors in the use of word position, errors in the use of prepositions, errors in the use of articles, mistakes in writing singular or plural forms of nouns, grammatical errors, such as the use of verbs without attaching the "-ed" ending after the subject, and spelling mistakes.However, based on the researcher's analysis, the students were able to convey their ideas and opinions through a series of sentences in their recount texts.Therefore, the results of the assessment of the students' recount texts are presented in the categories shown in the diagram below.Based on the data, the students have ability in writing that we can see from the results of their writing.However, on the other hand the researcher found some ironic facts in English language teaching namely the learning administration provided by the English language teacher was very good and appropriate.The teacher provides complete learning administration, but in reality, English language teaching is still conducted in Indonesian and students struggle to construct English sentences spontaneously, resulting in shortcomings in writing.This creates a gap between expectations and reality in the implementation of the curriculum.Therefore, for the further researcherrs is needed to explore and solve this problem to improve student achievement.

Conclusion
The learning management carried out by English teachers is guided by the Ministry of Education, Culture, Research and Technology Regulation No. 16 of 2022, which consists of planning, implementation, and assessment.The learning planning management is carried out by teachers by preparing the ATP with ten components and MA with three general elements.The management of teaching writing skill is carried out according to the prepared ATP, which consists of three stages; opening, core activities, and closing by integrated five principles of teaching based on Merdeka Belajar Curriculum, integrated trigger questions to students, used lecturing method, discussions, Q&A, and quizzes, then using problem-based as learning model.The evaluation management carried out by the English teacher was diagnostic, formative and summative assessment.The students were able to convey their ideas and opinions through a series of sentences in their recount texts.It is recommended that English teachers consistently manage English learning properly, so that the students can expand their knowledge of grammar, vocabulary, and practice writing various types of genre.

Chart 1 .
The Completeness Comparison components of Modul Ajar Both of English Teachers Based on the above diagram, it can be seen that the Learning Module of the Teacher A has very good completeness criteria with a score of 87.5.However, MA of Teacher B has good completeness criteria with a score of 84.37.Therefore, MA provided by Teacher A more be better that MA provided by teacher B.The Management of implementation based on Merdeka Belajar Curriculum in teaching students' writing skillsBased on the result of teaching writing activities, both of english teacher three stages teaching by the principles of teaching based on Perkemendikbudristek No. 16 of 2022 namely creating learning interactive, inspiring, enjoyable, challenging, and motivating learning environments by integrating trigger questions with teaching methods such as lecturing, discussions, Q&A, and quizzes, as well as using problem-based learning (PjBL).Additionally, teachers integrate technology into learning to facilitate writing teaching material delivery.Furthermore, bellow the researcher presented the diagram of principles of teaching implemented by both English teachers namely as follows:Based on the chart, there is a comparison of the learning principles.It can be concluded that Teacher A has implemented many of the Merdeka curriculum-based learning principles than Teacher B.

Table 1 .
Assesment criteria for completeness of learning planning and teaching

Table 2 .
The Complements of ATP

Table 3 .
The Completeness of MA

Table 4 .
Principles of Teaching Based on Merdeka Belajar Curriculum No. Principles of Teaching Based on Merdeka Belajar Curriculum