Networking as a Means for Teachers’ Professional Development:

An Indonesian Experience

 

 

Bambang Yudi Cahyono

State University of Malang, Jl. Surabaya 6 Malang, Indonesia

Linda Widyawatie

LBPP-LIA Cilegon, Jl. Raya Merak Km. 2.5 Cilegon, Banten, Indonesia

 

 

Abstract

 

Teachers are required to develop their knowledge and expertise in their field of study. However, not all teachers have opportunities to attend in-service training programs after completing their education in teachers training colleges. Responding to this condition, we decided to build a network for English language teachers in Indonesia, called “ELT Indonesia” (see www.geocities.com/eltindonesia). This network aims to support English language teaching and learning in this country. It has regional representatives in a number of provinces and is currently developed to include more teachers from all provinces in Indonesia. This paper presents our experience in developing this network and highlights how networking could be used as an alternative means for teachers’ professional development. In order to explore how teachers perceive professional development activities run in the network, this paper presents two cases of networking: one in the Province of Banten which has been attended by 85 local teachers and in the Province of East Java which has involved 73 teachers. This paper shows our success story in managing workshops on various techniques in the teaching of English which have been highly valued by English language teachers in the two regions.

 

 

INTRODUCTION

 

Teachers are required to develop their knowledge and expertise in their field of study. There are two types of education dealing with teachers’ professional development: pre-service and in-service education. Pre-service education is prepared for those who have not yet worked as teachers, whereas in-service education is provided for those who have worked as teachers. Although these two types of education share the same goal in improving teachers’ professional development, they have different features which may influence the degree of success in the efforts of improving teachers’ quality.

 

This paper focusses on in-service education for secondary school teachers of English through networking which is used as a means for their professional development.

 

 

PRE-SERVICE AND IN-SERVICE EDUCATION FOR ENGLISH TEACHERS IN INDONESIA

 

 

In Indonesia, the responsibility to prepare secondary school teachers through pre-service education is taken by the Lembaga Pendidikan Tenaga Keguruan (LPTK) or teachers training colleges such as Institutes of teacher training and education (IKIP), faculty of teacher training and education (FKIP) which is a part of university, and various faculties in universities which have a wider mandate both to provide teacher training and non teacher training education.

 

Teachers colleges as a provider of pre-service education have a set of curriculum which aims to prepare students to be qualified teachers when they graduate. For example, at the English department of the State University of Malang, a university which has a double mandate to provide teacher training and non teacher training education, prospective English teachers are required to take between 140 to 160 credits in order to complete their S-1 (bachelor) education. The courses offered include general courses, courses on basics of education, English major courses, and thesis writing courses (Widayati & Anugerahwati, 2005).

 

In terms of English major courses, teachers colleges have the flexibility to provide various subjects to meet the need of the society. For example, in order to improve the ability in oral communication, intensive course (IC) program has been introduced to students of the English departments at a number of teachers colleges (Djiwandono, 1999) and this program was found to be successful (Cahyono, 2002). Some other teachers colleges have provided subjects to meet the demand for teachers of English for young learners (e.g., Sutarsyah, 2004) and the use of English in business market (e.g., Rusli, 2004).

 

The responsibility to develop secondary school teachers through in-service education or training is taken by many institutions such as teachers colleges, government offices of education at minucipality/regency and provincial levels, and the Musyawarah Guru Mata Pelajaran (MGMP) or subject teachers forum. However, not all teachers have opportunities to attend in-service training programs after completing their education in teachers colleges. Such an in-service education or training program may not be accessible to many teachers for various reasons such as costly fee, lack of frequency, and the specific nature of the program. 

 

Responding to this condition, we decided to build a network to support English language teaching and learning in Indonesia. This paper presents our experience in developing the network in the country and highlights how networking could be used as an alternative means for teachers’ professional development. To explore how teachers perceive professional development activities run in the network, this paper presents two cases of networking: one in (the Province of) Banten which has involved 85 teachers and the other in East Java which has involved 73 teachers. It shows our success story in managing a series of workshops on various techniques in the teaching of English which have been highly valued by English language teachers in the two regions.

 

“ELT INDONESIA” AS A NETWORK AND ITS ACADEMIC ACTIVITIES

 

The network of English language teachers that we have built is called “ELT Indonesia”. This network aims at developing the English language teaching and learning in Indonesia. It is centrally managed in Malang, which is located in the Province of East Java, and has regional representatives in a number of provinces (e.g., Bangka & Belitung, Banten, East Kalimantan, Lampung, South Sulawesi, and West Sumatra).

 

The network runs a number of academic activities such as Virtual Forum for English Language Teachers in Indonesia (www.yahoogroups.com/eltindonesia). Through this forum, especially via the dissemination of “ELT Indonesia article alert,” members are made familiar to the latest development of issues and trends in English language teaching and learning in Indonesia. Members are also made informed regarding ELT events such as seminars and conferences in this country.

 

The website of the network (www.geocities.com/eltindonesia) offers digital resources for English language teachers. For example, it displays hundreds of abstracts of journal articles and conference papers that can be accessed by Internet users and some of these abstracts have full articles or papers. It also provides special pages for “who is who” of English language teachers in this country (www.geocities.com/eltindonesia/whoiswho).

 

In addition to academic activities run via the use of the Internet, other academic activities such as workshops have been conducted in two provinces: Banten and East Java. In Banten, a series of workshops conducted in 2004 and 2005 were attended by 85 local teachers and in East Java, a couple of workshops conducted recently have involved 73 local teachers. The remainder of this paper presents our experience in running workshops in the two provinces and discusses how teachers value aspects of the implementation of these academic activities.

 

WORKSHOPS IN BANTEN

To start a series of workshops in Banten, an action plan forum was conducted. For this, letters of invitation were sent to schools and English language courses in Banten.  Twenty-three teachers in Banten attended the forum at the home of ELT Indonesia Banten on October 22, 2004. Most of the teachers were from Cilegon, Serang, Kragilan, and Cikande. From the discussion in the forum, it was found that teachers mostly need to enhance their own English proficiency. They were also interested in exploring their own competence first rather than talking about some issues which are more theoretical. The forum identified 11 topics to be worked on in the next meetings.

 

Up to now, eight workshops have been conducted in Banten. While some of the topics in the workshops were new, many were based on the topics recommended by teachers in the first meeting. The workshop topics included “grammar in games", “techniques for teaching speaking skills", "teaching English in a large class: focus on reading skills", "time-filler games in the teaching of English", "teaching English in a large class: tocus on reading skills", "SMS and the teaching of English", "pronunciation: how good are you at it?", and "homonyms in the teaching of English".

 

Teachers’ level of participation in the workshops is considered to be good. In a normal-day gathering (it was not raining when a workshop was conducted) between 20 to 35 teachers attended the workshop. However, on a particular day when it was raining, only 6 teachers attended the workshop. Thus, external factor may influence teachers’ level of participation. Currently, the total members of ELT Indonesia Banten reached 74 teachers (based on data recorded in mid 2005, see Figure 1).

 

                                                                                                Figure 1

                                                                 Composition of Members of ELT Indonesia Cilegon

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

WORKSHOPS IN EAST JAVA

 

Two workshops were conducted in Malang, East Java. The first workshop was carried out in response to the need in understanding more about the new curriculum, called “Competency-Based Curriculum” (CBC), which emphasizes different types of texts. The topic of the one-day workshop held in December 2005 was “Making use of various monologue texts in the teaching of English”. Sub-topics included “narrative and procedure texts”, “report and descriptive texts”, “recount, spoof, and

                                                                                               

                              

 

 

anecdote texts”, and “the teaching of various monologue texts”. The workshop was attended by 46 teachers from various town in East Java such as Madiun, Pasuruan, Sidoarjo, Surabaya, and Malang. A questionnaire was distributed at the end of the workshop sessions, asking the teachers to evaluate the implementation of the workshop. Most of the teachers in the workshop considered that all the materials were useful and they were presented well (Score 4 in the Likert-Scale). They also expressed their intention to attend another workshop on CBC, particularly on authentic assessment of monologue texts.

 

The second workshop was a series of workshop sessions on “Techniques in the teaching of writing” which was presented in three consecutive weeks in February 2006. Sub-topics included “writing instruction: a brief theoretical review”, “dialogue journal: what they are and how to teach them”, “derby writing in the English classroom”, “practice in evaluating a written text”, and “cubing and problem solution: a couple of etchniques in the teaching of writing”. The workshop series was attended by 27 teachers from Malang. Like in the first workshop, a questionnaire was distributed in this workship series. The workshop participants stated that all materials were useful and they were presented well (Core 4 in the Likert-Scale). Teachers also recommended us to run another workshop, especially on the teaching of other language skills such as listening, speaking, and reading. The workshops have involved teachers (see Figure 2, for the composition of the teachers).

 

                                                                                                Figure 2

                                                                 Composition of Members of ELT Indonesia East Java

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

CONCLUDING REMARKS

 

ELT Indonesia as a network aims at supporting the development of English language teaching and learning and Indonesia. These objectives were achieved through various academic activities. One of the activities which are valued highly by teachers is the administration of workshops which are currently conducted in two regions: Banten and East Java. The workshops in these two regions have involved a relatively great number of teachers. In the long run, this network will be developed to reach more provinces in Indonesia and the workshops will be improved to involve more teachers, not only those in Banten and East Java, but also teachers from other regions.

 

 

REFERENCES

 

Cahyono, B. Y. (2002). How English intensive course program affects the English proficiency of students of teachers’ colleges in Indonesia. K@ta, 4(1), 23-35.

 

Djiwandono, M. S. (1999). English language teacher education: Rewriting S-1 national curriculum. TEFLIN Journal, 10(1), 17-30.

 

Rusli, R. S. (2004). The S1 graduates’ English language competence as expected by stakeholders. In B. Y. Cahyono & U. Widiati (Eds.), The tapestry of English language teaching and learning in Indonesia (pp. 233-240). Malang: State University of Malang Press.

 

Sutarsyah, C. (2004). Designing an English for young learners course as a part of English department curriculum. In B. Y. Cahyono & U. Widiati (Eds.), The tapestry of English language teaching and learning in Indonesia (pp. 281-289). Malang: State University of Malang Press.

 

Widayati, S., & Anugerahwati, M. (2005). Katalog Jurusan Sastra Inggris. Malang: Fakultas Sastra Universitas Negeri Malang.

 

 

 

Website: www.geocities.com/eltindonesia

Email: eltindonesia@yahoo.com