MENTOR TEACHERS’ VOICES ON PRE-SERVICE ENGLISH TEACHERS’ PROFESSIONAL LEARNING

Various studies have demonstrated that the role of mentor teachers in helping pre-service English teachers (PSETs) develop their professional experiences in school-based practicum is undeniably fundamental. Considering that mentor voices are still underrepresented in studies, this study aims to investigate the mentor teachers’ voices and beliefs to help the professional learning of pre-service English teachers (PSETs) in their school-based practicums. This is a qualitative study which involves seven mentor teachers who teach English in senior high schools in Indonesia. Data was gathered through questionnaires and unstructured interviews carried out in the participants’ school setting and analysed using NVIVO 9 (qualitative data analysis software). The findings reveal the mentor teachers’ beliefs in guiding PSETS during the school-based practicum. The mentor teachers viewed that PSETs need to learn and experience more fundamental aspects of teaching, namely interpersonal skills and emotional engagement in teaching, including their leadership. Implications for teacher education to improve the quality of relationship between PSETs and mentor teachers are addressed

Reflective Practices for Teacher Education

Studies on reflective practice in teacher education are increasingly getting more attention at least in the last 2 decades. This article discusses concepts of reflection and how it is implemented in educating pre-service teachers on their early stage of professional learning. The purposes of doing the reflection for pre-service teachers are not only for illuminating their professional learning experiences, but also to critically reflect their vocation as teachers, including the values which may be dictated to them through rigid regulations. Reflection in teacher education is crucial as it connects well with learning in that learners use reflection to exercise their mind and to evaluate their learning experiences. Besides, this article also highlights some perceived difficulties to implement reflective practice, as well as ways how to promote reflection.DOI: https://doi.org/10.24071/llt.2012.15010

VOICES OF PRE-SERVICE ENGLISH TEACHERS: REFLECTING MOTIVATIONS DURING PRACTICUM LEARNING

After Dewey (1933) and Schön (1983, 1987), education scholars began to look further at the concepts of reflection for learning. Following these concepts, there have been plenty of studies on reflection, particularly those discussing teachers' classroom experiences and their endeavour to de-velop professional skills. However, educational practitioners in Indonesia (as in the rest of the world) often criticise preservice teachers' (PSTs) lack of content knowledge, which they claim should be 'prioritised' during a teacher education course. Such pressing situations may have made it difficult to model or experience reflective practice. Against these odds, this research pa-per addresses issues related to the identity and professional development of thirteen English PSTs during their campus and school-based practicum in an Indonesian university. This study collected empirical data through PSTs' re-flective journals, questionnaires, individual interviews, focus group discus-sion, and autobiography. The study examines problems encountered by PSTs, namely their motivations to become teachers. This study signifies that teacher education needs to provide more reflective dialogues to shape PSTs’ identity and professionalism

ENHANCING VOCATIONAL HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS' READING SKILLS USING JEOPARDY GAMES

Jeopardy game is a common game for players to compete for the highest score.  Nevertheless, this game can be modified to provide the students with a fun, engaging, and challenging interactive game for learning activities. The use of the Jeopardy game in improving teaching-learning activities was abundant, whereas the use of Jeopardy in vocational high school was little to be found. This study tried to figure out the implementation of Jeopardy games in enhancing reading skills for vocational high school students. Classroom action research was conducted to observe students' improvement in reading after implementing Jeopardy games in reading activities. Closed-ended questionnaires on how the jeopardy games influence the teaching process and activities were conducted to get the quantitative data. Observation, reflection, open-ended questionnaire, and FGD were gathered to strengthen the result of quantitative data. The results showed that students demonstrated better reading comprehension from the diagnostic test, cycle I, and cycle II results; mean score 5.76, 6.48, and 7.28. Students also reported that they got motivated and were likely to read more. To conclude, students stated that they experienced some improvement in cooperative learning and reading strategies. The implication of the study is discussed at the end of this article

Indonesian Teachers’ Self-Regulation, Their Self-Concept of Competence and Satisfaction in Teaching

It has been acknowledged in the literature that a good self-concept of teachers will enable teachers to adapt to changing situations, which might result in effective teaching that will benefit students. On the contrary, negative self-concept results in teachers’ burnout and inability to perform well in teaching. This mixed-methods study aims to investigate whether teacher self-concept can be enhanced by the implementation of self-regulation strategies. Two research questions are formulated in this study: (1) To what extent do Indonesian teachers implement self-regulation in their teaching? (2) What is the correlation between teachers’ self-regulation and the concept of their competency and satisfaction in teaching? In the quantitative phase, sixty teachers from different parts of Indonesia participated in the study by completing an online questionnaire. The data gathered was submitted to the SPSS and was analyzed using the Pearson correlation method. The result showed that there were positive correlations between teacher self-regulation and teacher self-concept of competence with r=.381 and satisfaction with r=.372. To gain a deeper understanding, in the qualitative phase, interviews were done with three of the teachers. The data resulted that teachers have highly implemented teacher self-regulation and affirmed that it has contributed to the enhancement of their self-concept of competence and satisfaction

ENGLISH TEACHERS MOTIVATION AND CHALLENGES IN VOCATIONAL HIGH SCHOOL IN YOGYAKARTA

This study examines English teachers voices regarding the teacher professional development (TPD) experiences in state vocational high school in Yogyakarta, Indonesia. The voices include their motivation and perceived challenges of professional development efforts. The study is a qualitative research employing questionnaire and interviews to gather the data from ten English teachers in state vocational high school. The findings unravel some intrinsic motivations of English teachers and the challenges and needs perceived in doing TPD related to their time management, namely problems related to teaching schedule and time to look after the family. Most teachers also need more training to practice their ICT skills and performance. The suggestions for further studies are also discussed.DOI: doi.org/10.24071/llt.2018.Suppl210

Developing Students’ Higher Order Thinking Skills (HOTS) in Reading: English Teachers’ Strategies in Selected Junior High Schools

The 2013 curriculum in Indonesia mandates that teachers should develop students’ Higher Order Thinking Skills (HOTS). One of the learning goals through HOTS is to make sure that students can analyze, evaluate, and create their knowledge. However, studies on HOTS issues in English learning, particularly in reading skills, are still very limited. Therefore, this study aimed at describing the teachers’ strategies in developing HOTS in teaching reading skills. The researcher used a mixed-method, as it is relevant to the methodology needed in this study. The participants were 22 English teachers of Junior High Schools in Yogyakarta. The data were collected through questionnaires, observations, and interviews. The findings indicated that the strategies by the teachers to develop HOTS were as follows: (1) asking divergent questions to the students, (2) using group discussions, (3) informing learning objectives to the students, (3) giving feedback to invite the students to review, refine, and improve understanding about learning materials, and (5) giving motivation to the students to think critically. The recommendation for further study is also discussed

“Thriving through Reflecting”: Current Perspective on Teacher Professional Development Research in Asia Context

Reflective practice has long gained more spotlight from researchers in the education realm, particularly for promoting teachers’ professional development (TPD). Generally speaking, reflective practice provides abundant merit for teachers, namely, evaluating teachers’ teaching quality, enhancing teachers’ professional skills, and guiding teachers in their professional development. This study aims to present how reflective practice assists English teacher professional development in the Asian context. To discover how reflective practice promotes teacher professional development, the researchers analyzed several research journal articles using a document analysis method. The current contributions of reflective practice present the significance of reflective practice. It involves why and how English teachers should employ the reflective practice in their daily teaching processes. This study provides future research direction as well, specifically on how to equip teachers to become reflective practitioners in their teaching practices, how to provide a supportive environment for reflective practitioners, and how to enhance the implementation of reflective practice through online platforms.   Keywords: reflection, reflective practice, reflective practitioner, collaborative reflective practic