Graduate Student Spotlight: Ahmad Wachidul Kohar
PRIME is excited to welcome first-year student Ahmad Wachidul Kohar to the mathematics education doctoral program.
Ahmad was born in Bojonegoro, a small city situated on the south bank of the Solo River, the longest river in Java Island, Indonesia. After graduating from high school, Ahmad moved from Bojonegoro to Surabaya City to pursue an undergraduate degree in mathematics education at Universitas Negeri Surabaya. He then moved to Palembang City to complete a master's degree in mathematics education at Universitas Sriwijaya, South Sumatra.
Ahmad most recently has lived in Surabaya City with his wife and two kids, a son and
daughter. Surabaya is the capital city of East Java Province, and is also known as
Kota Pahlawan, the city of heroes.
In his free time, Ahmad loves to listen to podcasts that inspire and motivate him to be a better person. He believes that listening to the journeys of others can often provide inspiration for personal growth. He also enjoys playing the recorder as a stress relief activity. Ahmad enjoys watching a variety of performers, including singers, musicians, orchestras, and other talented individuals of all ages.
Ahmad has traveled to many places within Indonesia such as Jakarta, Palembang, Bandung,
and Yogyakarta, to pursue his degree, attend conferences, visit families and friends,
or just for vacation. He has also traveled to Lombok, an island with vibrant culture
and diverse landscapes and beauty.
Kohar has been involved in a non-profit foundation called YPMIPA, Yayasan Pembina Matematika dan Ilmu Pengetahuan Alam, which aims to cultivate a realistic mathematics learning environment in Indonesia. Some of the programs in teacher training were focused on improving teachers’ skills in designing meaningful context-based tasks for their teaching practices. It was through this foundation that Ahmad got to express his interest in the field of real-world context-based mathematics tasks. Kohar worked with mathematics education researchers from across Indonesia to provide workshops on mathematics learning for primary and secondary teachers. “I am fascinated by these experiences since I had not only the opportunity to apply what I studied at my schools but also learned from real teaching practices experienced by in-service teachers,” Kohar stated.
Before coming to PRIME, Ahmad had been teaching at his undergraduate alma mater since 2019. He had also been involved in YPMIPA during this time.
During his time here at PRIME, Ahmad hopes to learn more about his interests in the
use of real-world contexts in mathematics tasks for school learning. After being involved
in research projects related to teacher or pre-service teacher education, he has been
more interested in investigating how teachers or pre-service teachers deal with posing
context-based mathematics problems as crucial skills for organizing meaningful learning.
He is interested in developing interventions in professional development that can
help pre-service teachers’ skills in posing problems using real-world contexts.
After graduating from PRIME, Kohar wants to be a researcher and educator in mathematics education and pursue his passion in advanced research and issues in the field, either nationally or globally. He also hopes to become more involved in sustainable projects which facilitate mathematics teachers to develop their teaching skills, such as pre-service or in-service teacher education programs.
Welcome to PRIME, Ahmad! We hope you had a fantastic first semester and wish you the best for your second semester!
Written by
Ansley Duke
