MURRDERR Strategy: Developing Creative Characters of Elementary School Prospective Teachers

Abstract

Learning or lecturing, which are an essential part of the education process, are often presented only by cramming the teaching materials' contents to students but defying values. Allowing this to continue to happen will unquestionably lead to the next generation's increasingly tense situation, who are already in a messy condition and may lose their creative character. Along with character education that is always echoed, the presence of the MURRDERR strategy (Metaphor, Understand, Recall, Recognize, Detect, Elaborate, Review, and Respect) in classroom learning is expected to be one of the excellent and attractive choices for instilling lively characters in students. This paper provides a brief overview of the results of five semesters in total, including two semesters of applying the MURRDERR strategy in lectures at the Elementary Teacher Education Program, especially in mathematics lectures. Two research phases: first, didactic design research to produce teaching materials that can optimize the emergence of creative characters and followed by a quasi-experimental method. As a result, (1) the MURRDERR strategy provided a better contribution than conventional (expository/lecturing) learning in developing the creative character of students of the Elementary School Teacher Program, (2) teaching material developed through didactic design research was beneficial in achieving optimal learning outcomes, (3) students of the Elementary School Teacher Program with a background in science education tended to equip and prepare themselves to deal with issues related to creativity.