Models Of Professional Development Education Essay

One of the foremost provisioning factors of the development of a nation is its education, including its quality of teachers, students, as well as education facilities and infrastructures. Therefore, education is defined as fundamental to national development and it is also a process and tool of which to contribute in sustainable development of the nation (Seubsang, & Boonphadung, 2011). Besides, all over the world, and not being exaggerated to argue that education as the gateway to future economic prosperity, the instrument for combating unemployment, the driving force behind scientific and technological progress, the safeguard of democratic values and the passport to personal success, (Panggabean, 2010). In fact that, with globalization became a universal concept since 1990’s and the need of the national development many countries had consistently fashioned its educational policies to make the country relevant to development of economics and subsequently through education, integrate it into the global economy, (Misra, & Bajpai, 2010).

In respect of the important education, further with the global challenges, viewing that the development of education means also the development of human being, since people are the greatest and most valuable asset for any country; its development should receive the greatest attention. This is because once the educational development is successful in true sense; the people will be quite ready to solve their own individual, local and national problems and improve their standards of living, while at the same time contribute to the solution of world problems (Madya, 2001).

Following its notions, there is a vital aspect that always plays important roles, although the government of any country has performed with any kinds of reforms such as curriculum, it is not just been enough to exclaim that education lays down on government side, all parties including teacher who precisely influential factor in the classroom is the most prominent actor to sustain such of the development. For that reason, the demand of the reform is needed to which directly answers the question concerned with the characteristics of the coming era and possible problems to be encountered. Thus, the notion of the reform in education specifically teacher should perform a significant function of perpetuating society’s heritage and energizing human resources towards social progress, additionally Misra and Bajpai verbalized that “the level of nation’s education cannot rise far above the quality of the teacher of that nation, this therefore, makes the preparation and selection of teachers a significant social concern” (Misra, & Bijpai, 2010, p. 6).

In advance, the notion of the global challenges and the need of the reform educational system in order to be competitive and meet the national’s need stretching out the pattern that the teacher’s role shifted from the traditional practice into more complex challenges, such as increasingly diverse students population, new technologies and rigorous academic standards and goals have led to the emergence of the concept of continuing professional development (Eurydice, 1995 as cited in Karagiorgi, & Symeou, 2005). The term of professional development however ensued because of the teacher’s role are not static but dynamic as the continue changing as per demands of the society (Misra, & Bijpai, 2010). Somehow, its term refers implicitly to the teacher professional development who anybody cannot denies that teachers are also the most important factor in student achievement (Carey, 2004 in Smith, & Gillespie, 2007). Yet, although the term used to any fields related to doctors, lawyers, accountants, engineers, and people in a wide variety of professions and business, in education effective professional development affects students, student learning and achievement increase when educators engage in effective professional development focused on the skills educators need in order to address students’ major learning challenges (Mizell, 2010).

The growing and challenging of teacher professional development today is rooted by the evolution that teacher is not only one of the variables to be changed in order to improve the educational system but also the most significant agent in this reform. Jamil (2010) highlights that “teachers in today’s world are under a growing pressure to perform, higher expectations and greater needs now pressure the teachers to perform effectively in classroom, it all comes down to quality teachers who are the determinants of student achievement” (Jamil et.al, 2010, p. 85). Straightforward, with above scenario the need of the quality teaching affects to improve teacher professional development by enhancing pre-service and in-service education program, in another reason with a lot of information and communication that are provided today bring new possibilities and paradigm to them, they must be adequately and appropriately trained through education programs, and access to these ongoing professional development is a prerequisite.

Teacher professional development (also known as “in-service” or “teacher education”) is the instruction provided to teachers to promote their development in a certain area (Hooker, 2008), in ESL/EFL context ̶ this study ̶ teacher professional development is undoubtedly important because and also of an impact of the era of globalization where English teacher must have competency in grammar, sociolinguistics, discursively and strategically proficient in English language, moreover, they need to have awareness about language learners, process of learning, classroom teaching strategies, and adequate experience and practice in English language (Yuwono & Harbon, 2010).

To date, with empirical studies done, especially in Indonesian context where English is taught as a foreign language, the demand to have a quality English teaching generates the country to re-examines the policies of teaching this language to be no longer as a subject matter, but it is initiated as a compulsory course for which the learners are directed similar as those who have learnt English as a second language. Likewise, the reason to just “re-examine” the language into core subject is considerately being fruitful, but in another hand, the policy to develop teacher’s teaching quality must in line thoroughly. They must assure the subjects which are students learned in the classroom meet the students’ need both in term of national and international competitiveness, thus the involvement of teachers toward education reform and the continuation of in-service program is a necessity, moreover for those teachers who are in secondary vocational high school where the development of new technologies require them to assist the students either being communicatively in English or integrating the subject into core activities related to students’ skill programs.

Studies show that the quality of in-service teacher program mediates the opportunities for teachers to improve the quality of their practice, Starkey et. al., (2009) affirm, the education reform however indicates that the importance of external expertise at all stages, an in particular, working with teachers to interpret policy for enactment in classrooms (Starkey et al., 2009, in Parson, & Higgins, 2011). Similarly Coburn, & Russel (2008) explain that The engagement of teachers is necessary because substantive new learning requires them to understand new content, learn new skill and think about their existing practice in new ways (as cited in Parson, & Higgins, 2011).

From 2005 to 2013, in response to increase awareness of the importance of professional learning and development as a mechanism to improve the quality of teaching and student outcomes, a national research and development initiative focused on building in-service teacher educator knowledge and skills was undertaken in Indonesia, several programs handed on, for instance, the government of Indonesia together with World Bank conducts a project named BERMUTU (Better Education through Reform Management and Universal Teacher Upgrading 2007-2013) where the objective is to contribute to the improvement of the overall quality and performance of teachers through enhancing teachers’ knowledge of subject matter and pedagogical skills in the classroom, (World Bank, 2012), in addition, the Teacher and Lecturer Act No, 14/2005, the central government of Indonesia by this act enhance the teachers’ quality through teacher certification program, provision of block-grant to school, establishment of subject-matter teacher association, organization of scientific forum and publication of scientific journals, and empowerment of subject matter teacher cluster the so-called “MGMP” (“Musyawarah Guru Mata Pelajaran”), (Jalal, 2011).

As the time being, the ongoing programs mentioned above, require more description to gain enlightenment, hence this research attempts to describe the needs of EFL teachers in selected public vocational high school in Riau Province of Indonesia.

Statement of the Problem

The issue to improve the teacher education program or teacher professional development in Indonesia becomes more relevant since 2005, when the central government launched the Teacher and Lecturer act under the law No. 14/2005, one of the ground-breaking legislations and government regulations in the education sector deliberated during the Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono (current president) administration, (Setiawan, 2009). With the act, millions of public and private “in-service” school teachers are still participating through the certification program; the government enhances this program by hoping that all in-service teachers meet the 4 years academic qualification either diploma or an undergraduate degree.

Therefore, from the qualification stand point, only 51 percent out of 2,92 million teachers passed their bachelors’ degree or higher, this also applies to certification requirements where only 2,06 million or 70,5 percent meet the certification standard, by the fact, this situation impacted that the result of teacher initial competency test before taking a certification program (UKA: Uji Kompetensi Awal) in February 2012 was still below expectation, (Sampoerna Foundation, 2012). Similarly the data from Unesco in 2011, Indonesia has more than 3.4 million teachers, however, according to the MoNE, only 16,9% or 575,000 teachers in Indonesia were certified professional teachers, (Unesco, 2011). Likewise, the current data from World Bank stated that the increase of teachers who meet academic qualification has significantly increased; its current report showed over 1,5 million out of 2,9 million teachers have already acquired the mandated 4-year college degree, (World Bank, 2012).

The statistical provided above, however, it grasps the understanding of the current teacher education development problem in Indonesia, with million teachers who are spread into 33 provinces in Indonesia, especially for primary and secondary teachers, some of them are still not qualified to certification program, meanwhile the certification program aims is to improve their teaching academically. From this point of view, one can agree that the teachers’ academic qualification in Indonesia is still facing a big problem to unravel.

Despite, many other things commonly affect the quality of teacher education in Indonesia, not only about the issue of where most of the teachers are not qualified their profession academically, but also the largest population and areas around Indonesia resulted the teachers distribution to the district or rural area still has a problematic, it is the most populated country in the world with around 237,5 million people comprising of around 300 distinct native ethnicities, encompasses more than 742 different languages and dialects, (Gordon, 2005, in Setiawan, 2009; Global Education, 2009; Katadinata, 2010). But therefore, since the decentralization policy on 2001, it has addressed some important points such as financing and in which province has its independence to implement the national education policies according to the local’s priorities, the provincial level which gave education authorities the role as decision makers, but in another hand, its authority raises the disparity among 33 provinces in Indonesia, thus, the central government has an obstacle to provide equitable education for all Indonesian, (Lim, et.al. 2009).

The situation around, although the current education system in Indonesia being decentralized, but to date, regard and especially for “teacher professional development” tends to be centralized, the reason for this is just because the teacher is not given any roles in decision making toward the professional development program that are provided by government, they are supported to conduct several programs, but in any case they are less cooperative to implement the programs, they do when monitoring and supervision take place, Sajidin wrote that the motive of such its argument can be proved when the ends of the program they return to their previous style of teaching, then the slogan which is embedded in curriculum (KTSP, KBK, CBSA, CTL, etc.) is only the slogan which might be eventually forgotten, (Sajidin, 2010).

Supriatna, (2009) has given similar argument regards of this situation; he noted that the current in-service teacher training at provincial level did not work well, his research where was located in west java resulted that the teachers have not had an opportunity to refresh and update their knowledge and skills since their teaching appointment, means that, some cases for those teachers who already passed their certification program were not maintained to continue professional development.

Furthermore, the provincial Department of Education who maintains the current in-service teacher training has not had systematic program to manage, (Supriatna, 2009), it is just like a season program where few subject teachers being invited for intensive three days training at hotel, additionally he calculated that the numbers of teachers in junior secondary schools who participated in the in-service training from 26 districts (West Java study) for 6 subjects as equal to 312 (2 person/subject/districts x 26 districts x 6 subjects), meaning that out of 82,229 teachers or only 0.4 percent of teachers who have access to in-service training, (Supriatna, 2009). Despite the fact this study was located in Java but the situation would not much differ among provinces as java is the first location which going to be public test before a certain program launched by the central government.

Distinctively, the same situation also generates into the district level, it looks like the training which are provided by the local Department of Education has not facilitated the teachers to disseminate or share experiences with others, this phenomenon justified by Supriatna who explored that the design of the top-down training program did not give opportunity to teachers to disseminate what the real problems are, thus the result on in-service training benefited only for individual teacher, moreover, he insisted that in most cases, the result of in-service training were not easy to put into practice, so they kept to the traditional way of teaching, (Supriatna, 2009; Sajidin, 2010; Saito et al,. 2006).

The writer on the preliminary research has investigated the current situation at the district level where this study located; the phenomenon occurred as similarly as what has been described at the provincial level. Generally, by the government regulation since year 1978 Indonesia had begun its history on professional development programs for teachers, beginning on 1978 government had launched the program named PKG (Teacher Empowerment Program) to strengthen teachers’ competencies, this project was initially supported by UNDP (United Nation of Development Program) which ran from 1978 to 1984, then continue after the deadline till 1990 which fully supported by World Bank, (Somerset, 1997 as cited in Hadi, & Wiraatmaja, 2007), three levels of this project training were focused on national (Training for supervisor), provincial (training for key-teacher who supervise at district) and district level (Training for MGMP and KKG teachers).

KKG (School Cluster) is a group of “primary schools” teachers which consist of six to eight schools that has the same goal to improve the quality of education, and MGPM (Subject Matter Teachers Forum) is a group focused on “secondary schools” which consist of several subject teachers from different schools in a district. The program of KKG and MGPM however are still running in this current date, but the different is the project supported by World Bank under “BERMUTU” program since 2007 to 2013.

But steamily, we can now focus that the current in-service teachers training in Indonesia is only initially conducted by BERMUTU program (under government), the report shows over 1,5 million (of total 2,9 million teachers) teachers have acquired the mandated 4-year college degree, this exceed the final target of 1.4 million, likewise the improvement of teachers pedagogic skills is significantly increase, 214,380 teachers are participating in the 6,135 teacher professional working groups and principal and supervisor groups under BERMUTU project, (World Bank, 2012).

With above situation, the writer inspects that the current in-service teacher education in Indonesia is less comprehensive for subject matter teachers, although the program under BERMUTU consists of subject matter teacher forum (MGMP), but in another hand the program for secondary school teachers which is this study focused on, the realization of the program however need to be analyzed especially on what the teachers needs are. The current data from World Bank however only shows the quantity improvement of the teachers who participate in the program, nevertheless for subject matter teachers the realization of this program is contended, the issue is the teachers try to attend as many program such as training, seminars or discussion sessions and any professional development activities as possible, even though for those who live in remote areas, the opportunity is very scare, (Setiawan, 2009). The reason supported by Supriatna’s study that the transportation access in remote areas is problematic since the time consuming to reach the forum is far. In addition, he noted that there are three commonly issues rise on the different levels: national, provincial, and district, on the national term the issue not to regularly maintain the teachers’ education development after passing the certification, on provincial is the very small numbers of teachers and supervisors who represent their municipals, and on the district is the transportation access and time, (Supriatna, 2009).

Moving forward to the issue of EFL teachers professional development, the current practice of the training of in-service EFL teacher seems not different with the some commons issues that has been illustrated before, the training of MGMP which more focus on the subject matters teachers (English teachers included), as it was implied that teachers are government employees rather than as professional educators, in addition, public-serving teachers have been accustomed to receiving and following orders from the center rather than actively participating in professional development (see page. 7), Finding from the earlier study by Yuwono (2005) suggests that most English teachers in Indonesia however are aware of the importance of developing and learning as professional as well as the recent change of today’s globalization era in technologies and education system itself or in any changes in curriculum and ELT practice, but yet the realities of them are often forced to work in isolation and with inadequate support from policymakers and/or related stakeholders, such a condition could eventually lead to English teachers’ skepticism, confusion, ignorance, reluctance, unwillingness, or even resistance instead of growing as professional toward their professional development, (Yuwono, 2005, as cited in Yuwono, & Harbon, 2010).

Thus, once again, the general practice of the current in-service teacher training, even though in term of EFL teachers the case is almost like the same with others, this paper however intends to explore how English teachers in Indonesia especially in local regency of Riau province define and construct their needs ongoing professional development amidst recent changes and complexities appeared.

Purpose of the Study

The present study aims to explore the nature of professionalism as perceived by Indonesian EFL teachers regard to their needs in ongoing practice of their professional development, especially for Secondary Vocational High Schools teachers who teach in INHIL regency of Riau province Indonesia, existing issues and notions about the in-service education teacher will also be provided. Procedurally here are the systematic of the purposes of this study:

To examine the needs of EFL teachers at Secondary Vocational High Schools on their professional development within the educational system policy.

To generate the basic dimensions of in-service training provision in INHIL Regency of Riau province Indonesia and the lay foundation for in-depth study on the emerging issues.

Hence, 5 doors theory will be applied since this theory is a generic theory of change, works as a checklist of factors to keep in mind when designing a program and it is guide for research question to ask, (Robinson, 2011).

Review of the Literature

Because of in-service teacher training is a kind of teacher professional development (TPD) scaffold, consequently this session, first, trends in teacher professional development will be comprehensively discussed; it would be more specifically focus on term of TPD in English language teaching. Then, the distinctive contextual characteristics and structures of the specific educational system and the existing in-service training scheme at secondary vocational high school teacher in Indonesia will also be described.

Teacher Professional Development

To make clear, the concept of professional development and in-service training have slightly different meaning in relevant literature, with the first refers to signifying a range of activities including personal study and reflection, and the second refers to identifiable structured training activities, (Organization for Economic Co-Operation and Development, 1998, as cited in Karagiorgi, & Symeou, 2005). Based on this explanation, the writer would also use both concepts interchangeably in this paper; the reason is the concept of in-service training extends beyond the professional development, (Karagiorgi, & Symeo, 2005). Additionally, in-service teacher training is considered to incorporate the professional development of teacher through certain activities which aims improving their professionalism to acquire or deepen knowledge about subject matter, content, teaching skills, assessment methods, implement an existing or new curriculum, (USAID, 2011).

In advance and broad sense, the term of professional development is normally applied in different types of professional works, be it teacher, lawyer, engineer or doctor and so forth (Jamil, et al, 2010). Besides, Mizell (2010) describes that the term of professional development can be used either formal or informal context, the formal process usually mean when people use it in a formal context such as conference, seminar, or workshop; collaborative learning among members of a work team; or a course at college or university, while informal context, for instance, discussion among work colleagues, independent reading and research, observation of colleagues’ work, or other learning from peer, (Mizell, 2010).

Purposely, in the context of education, the term of professional development is commonly known as “teacher professional development” (TPD), the incorporation and the need for teacher evolving in professional development, because the teacher is one of the most influential factors in improving education, (Fullan, 2001), and one of the pivotal purposes is to equip teachers with the most relevant techniques that can be used in their daily classroom practices, (Al-Wreikat, 2010). His or her rules in today’s world is dynamic as the changing so-rapidly of globalization and technologies era, although it might be argued that the school or classroom effects is relatively small compared to other factors like family and individual efforts, he or she is nevertheless large in terms of placement in curricular tracks and further development, (Doorland, 1999, as cited in Azkiyah, et al, 2010).

In line with the teacher involvement, Glatthorn (1995) states that, “Teacher development is the professional growth a teacher achieves as a result of gaining increased experience and examining his or her teaching systematically” (Glatthorn, 1995, p. 41). Likewise, Diaz-Maggioli, (2003) notes that “it refers to a process in which teachers work under supervision to gain tenure or to enhance their professional practice”, (para.1). It is systematic effort to bring about change in the classroom practices of teachers, in their attitudes and beliefs, and in the learning outcomes of the students, (Guskey, 2002). Nevertheless, with so many definitions on TPD, whatever the term, the purpose is the same: to improve learning for educators and students, (Mizell, 2010).

Supported by Darling-Hammond (1998), he makes a strong argument for quality professional development by stating that each dollar spent on improving teachers’ qualifications nets greater gains in student learning than any other use of and education dollar, that is many research argue that the quality of a teacher is the most important predictor of student success, (Darling-Hammond, 1998). Likewise, former research demonstrated that teachers who received substantial professional development can boost their students’ achievement by about 21 percentile points, (Yoon, et al, 2007). Therefore, professional development for teachers cannot deny, as it is as compulsory as the education for students that can sustain the development of the nations.

Aside of that, evidence that TPD has a significant impact on teachers’ practice and beliefs, students’ learning, and the implementation of educational reforms, the impact on teachers’ practice and student learning however has been previously described. Additionally, the relationship between teachers’ beliefs and their practice is not straightforward or simple; on the contrary, it is dialectic, “moving back and forth between change in belief and change in classroom practice” (Cobb, Wood and Yackel, 1990; Franke et al., 1997; Thompson, 1992, in Nelson, 1999, p. 6, as cited in Eleonora Villegas-Reimers, 2003, p. 20). Furthermore, Wood and Bennett (2000) support this statement with the results of a study, in which a group of early childhood educators in England were helping to collect data concerning their own theories of play and their relationship to practice. As a result, these educators changed their own theories or teaching practices, or even both, (Villegas-Reimers, 2003, p. 20). Besides, Similar results are reported by Kettle and Sellars (1996) in a study of the development of the ‘practical theory’ of student-teachers in Australia; by Kallestad and Olweus (1998) in a study involving Norwegian teachers, which shows that teachers’ professional development has a large impact on defining teachers’ goals for their students, and these goals in turn affect the teachers’ behaviour in the classrooms and schools, (Villegas-Reimers, 2003).

With regard to the effect of TPD on educational reform, currently in the world, most of countries are engaged in some of educational reform, some of these reforms are focused on the national level, while another focused on the local level. Regardless, we can see so many associations and forums are established to enhance the reform for better education among the countries, such as E-9 forum of high-populated nine countries (Bangladesh, Brazil, China, Egypt, India, Indonesia, Mexico, Nigeria and Pakistan), which formed to achieve “Education for All” through cooperation. Such this forum which considers that teachers’ professional development need a comprehensive policy in order to empower the education, shortage and structural imbalance of teachers in rural or urban areas, or even the issues of the teachers’ welfare as well as their continuous professional development.

Moreover, academically, the research also showed the impact of TPD on the educational reform, for instance, (Morris, Chan and Ling, 2000, as cited in Villegas-Reimers, 2003):

“Report on the Target Oriented Curriculum (TOC), an educational reform of primary schools in Hong Kong which was introduced in the 1990s, and which the authors consider unsuccessful, even though the third stage of the reform is just beginning. According to their account, and that of Walker and Cheong (1996), the curriculum reform was designed by policy-makers with little, if any, input from the teachers. The schools and the public in general responded negatively to the proposed changes as they were complex, impractical, and not flexibl to accommodate to the needs of certain schools. Even though some modifications were made in response to the requests of teachers and schools in general, the reform was clearly imposed on teachers who felt they were being told what to do without any regard to their knowledge and day-to-day practice” (Villegas-Reimers, 2003, p. 21).

Yet, no matter how good pre-service training for teachers is, it cannot be expected to prepare teachers for all the challenges they will face throughout their careers. Education systems therefore seek to provide teachers with opportunities for in-service professional development in order to maintain a high standard of teaching and to retain a high-quality teacher workforce. Strengthened by Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) on comparative review on teachers, (2005) notes that:

“Effective professional development is on-going, includes training, practice and feedback, and provides adequate time and follow-up support. Successful programmes involve teachers in learning activities that are similar to ones they will use with their students, and encourage the development of teachers’ learning communities. There is growing interest in developing schools as learning organisations, and in ways for teachers to share their expertise and experience more systematically”, (As cited in TALIS, OECD, 2009, p. 49).

Concisely, the professional development of teachers is a key factor in ensuring that reforms at any level are effective. Successful professional-development opportunities for teachers have a significant positive effect on students’ performance and learning. Thus, when the goal is to increase students’ learning and to improve their performance, the professional development of teachers should be considered a key factor, and this at the same time must feature as an element in a larger reform.

Pedagogically, teachers need changes for more better, according to Altan, (1999, as cited in Panggabean, 2010) pedagogical changes imply changes in teachers’ mind, classroom practice, content lesson, and teachers-students roles or relationship. Thus, the roles of teachers will inevitably change to being more that of change agent than expert, counselor, facilitator, coordinator of project, or team leader. Furthermore, educational change involves learning how to do something new, and considering this, TPD is one crucial factor to change. In its broader definition, TPD encompasses what teachers bring to the profession and what happens to them throughout their careers, (Panggabean, 2010).

Apart of that, the model of TPD nowadays is rooted from two ways, one is “traditional model”, and secondly is the “job-embedded” professional development. Short-term or one-session workshops, trainings, seminars, lectures, and conference sessi