Teachers’ Competences to Implement the Character Education in
Early Childhood Education
Silvie Mil
Fakultas Keguruan dan Ilmu Pendidikan, Universitas Muhammadiyah Prof. Dr. Hamka, Jakarta, Indonesia
silviesahara@uhamka.ac.id
Keywords: Teachers’ Competences, Character Education, Early Childhood Education.
Abstract: This research aims to get information about teacher's competences to implement the character education in
state kindergarten using case study method. The research took place at TK Halimun, a state kindergarten in
South Jakarta, Indonesia and the subject were eight female teachers. The data were collected by observation,
interview and work documents. Analysis was by using descriptive Miles and Huberman method including
data reduction, data display and conclusion. Based on the findings, almost all teachers have bachelor degree
in early childhood education and 1 still in college. 85,7 % teachers already done a character training which
administered by Minister of Education of East Jakarta, Indonesia but they were not continuously. Also, 85,7
percent of the teachers have taught at least for five years. All of them have fulfil personal character
qualifications and implement them in the class during the classroom activities. All in all, the teachers have
fulfilled basic skills and had good manners in teaching character education to solve children’s character
difficulties.
1 INTRODUCTION
One of the most important components in
conducting a character education is the level of
competence that is owned by educators. Based on
the literature, teacher competences are the
combination of knowledge, skills, attitudes, values
and personal characteristics (Koster and Dengerink,
2008) in action in the classroom, directly linked with
the craft of teaching (Hagger and McIntyre, 2006).
Having a noble character is not automatically
possessed by every human being as soon as he is
born, but requires a long process through parenting
(Berkowitz and Melinda, 2004; Althof and
Berkowitz, 2006) and education. Building character
strength can be done through a good character
education in formal environments such as school and
became the aim, or non-formal such as family and
community (Chingos and Peterson, 2011; Kessler,
2000; Park and Peterson, 2006). Character education
is a system of character values inculcation (Mulyasa,
2012) conducted by teachers who are able to
influence learners which involves cognitive, social-
emotional and physical aspects (Megawangi, 2007).
Building a character involving all elements and
had a long way (Colgan, 2003). Therefore, each
element will have an effect on the process of
forming each character. Many different strategies
have been developed to continue to improve the
design of the program (Chapman, 2011). Since
teachers and parents spend the most time with the
students, they are responsible for instilling good
morals and values in them. Teachers implicitly
impart values when they select and exclude topics;
when they insist on correct answers; when they
encourage students to seek the truth of the matter;
when they set up classroom routines, form groups,
enforce discipline, encourage excellence (Narvaez
and Lapsley, 2004). Character formation is intrinsic
to classrooms and schools an inescapable part of the
teacher’s craft (Hansen, 1993; Jackson et al, 1993).
According to the Law of the Republic of
Indonesia Number 14 Year 2005 on Teachers and
Lecturers, there are four competencies that teachers
should have, they are the competence of personality,
social, professional and pedagogical. Building a
caring classroom community takes some skill on the
part of the teacher (Narvaez and Lapsley, 2004)
therefore effective teaching promotes both moral
and academic excellence (Solomon et al, 2001) to do
it so. Moreover, teachers need content knowledge of
presocial character, social and emotional skill
development, the pedagogical skills to pull it off;
Mil, S.
Teachers’ Competences to Implement the Character Education in Early Childhood Education.
In Proceedings of the 1st International Conference on Educational Sciences (ICES 2017) - Volume 2, pages 283-288
ISBN: 978-989-758-314-8
Copyright © 2018 by SCITEPRESS Science and Technology Publications, Lda. All rights reserved
283
and the disposition to be committed to providing
caring climates as a teaching practice (Narvaez and
Lapsley, 2004).
Previous research on early childhood has been
done by Chou et al (2014) and Kyoung and Jeon
(2016). The research was focus on the importance of
character education from early childhood education
and how it started from family and how was parent-
child relationship adopted it into multi-culture
family and Kyoung and Jeon study figured the
highest demanded teaching competencies for
character education were using tools and instrument
to check character education systematically. Another
research was at secondary school about teacher’s
belief in character education (Ulger et al, 2014) and
the result showed that character education
competency and general education competency did
not create a significant difference on teacher’s
beliefs. However, research on teacher’s competence
in implementing the character education in early
childhood is still rare especially in Indonesian
context. This research intends to looked at the extent
to which ability of teachers in implementing the
character education in early childhood.
1.1 Personality Competences
First, Personality competence is a competence
related to the teacher's own personal behavior
including attitudes, values of personality (Rychen &
Salganik, 2003) which is as behavioral elements in
relation to ideal performance according to field of
work based on educational background, capacity
building and training, and legality of teaching
authority. As the matter of fact, the teacher should
model a respectful behavior, warm, accepting, and
supportive to the students (Solomon et al, 2001).
Teachers also have interpersonal skill for learning in
professional and school communities (Lave and
Wenger, 1991; Wenger, 1998).
Indeed, teachers with positive attitudes about
students are more likely to foster student
achievement and ethical behavior (Haberman, 1996).
Teachers are also increasingly considered to need an
understanding of how their values and teaching
contexts effect their practice, an awareness of their
moral impact (Beyer 1997; Hansen, 2001) as their
role in relation at school.
1.2 Social Competences
The teacher's social competence is the ability of the
teacher to understand himself as a part of society and
able to develop duties as a member of society and
citizens (Lave and Wenger, 1991; Wenger, 1998).
Teacher’s social competence is important in several
aspects: Professional development, Teacher's role in
teaching/learning process and the initiative to teach
students to be together (Bequet et al, 2012). Social
competence in learning activities is closely related to
the ability of teachers in communicating with
communities around the school and the community
(Taylor and Nolen, 2004) where teachers live so that
the role and the way teachers communicate in the
community is expected to have its own
characteristics are slightly different from other
people who are not teachers. With the possession of
social competence, automatically school
relationships with the community will run smoothly
so that if there is a need with parents or students of
the community about the problem of learners who
need to be completed will not be difficult to contact
him.
1.3 Professional Competences
The third one is professional competences.
Professional competences are one of the basic skills
a teacher must have, its describes what teachers are
expected to know and to be able to do (Ingvarson,
1998). The key features of teacher’s professionalism
can be summed up as follows: a) the daily routine of
teaching activities; the ability to recognize of social
demand of classroom and classroom dynamic; c)
flexibility and improvisations; d) understanding
problems and specific expertise in recognizing
patterns in the complexity of classroom life.
1.4 Pedagogical Competences
The last one is Pedagogic Competencies. This
competence involves a teacher's ability to
understand the characteristics or abilities of the pupil
in various ways. Teachers should link between the
teacher’s pedagogical content knowledge and
student learning (Hill et al, 2005). Most studies seem
to agree that the teachers must knowing how to
transfer this to others (didactic knowledge);
awareness of how people learn, feel and
develop/pedagogical knowledge (Celik, 2011). The
best teachers are proficient in technical
competencies of teaching: instructional delivery,
formative assessment and classroom management
which lead students to a greater learning (Attakorn
et al, 2014). Teachers are expected to understand
the characteristics, character, level of thinking,
physical and psychological development of students
ICES 2017 - 1st International Conference on Educational Sciences
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deeply as a pedagogical content knowledge
(Shulman, 1987). By understanding these things, the
teacher will easily understand the difficulties and
ease of students in learning and developing
themselves.
2 METHODS
This research uses descriptive-analysis qualitative
approach where interpretation of data is holistic,
complex, dynamic and full of meaning. One of the
data source in this study were principal, teachers and
students as informants where they were selected
based on characteristics of conformity with the
required data. The informants were determined
based on the consideration of the function and role
of informants according to the limits of the research.
The subject’s categories of informants in this study
were those who’s directly involved in the learning
process; principal who give teacher performance
assessments, all the teachers and students
representatives of each class. Other data sources
were school documents, children’s portfolios and
pupils’ development reports.
Data collection techniques were conducted
through observation and interviews. The observation
was conducted to see the informants’ activities in
preparing the media and/or when creating a model of
learning with the use of learning media and at the
time of the learning process by using the observation
checklist. The interview was conducted to get
information data from informants that have been
determined by using the guide of questions.
The data analysis was done through several
steps. The first step was to do data reduction, at this
stage data were selected from the basic things that
can be from the field. Afterward, the data were
summarized, focused on the things that are
important and sough the theme and the pattern. This
reduction process was done gradually, during and
after data collection until the results report. Second,
the presentation of data in which the data were
reconstituted by classification and topics, each topic
then separated and stored in one place. Each place
was marked, this was to facilitate the use of data in
order to avoid mistakes. The third, the data from the
second activity were clustered and carefully
researched, to invested if it still requires additional
data or not until the data is considered sufficient and
has reached the point the saturation or has obtained
conformity. Then, the next activity is to arrange
reports until at the conclusion of the conclusion.
The main instrument in this study is the
researcher itself assisted by the interview guidelines,
a checklist of documents and observation sheets.
Content and construct validation were done through
experts and peers validation.
3 RESULTS
Based on the findings there are two types of
teachers, permanent and non-permanent ones.
Almost all of permanent teachers are civil servant.
Teachers with civil servant status are not recruited
directly by the school, but through the selection
process of civil servants held by the Ministry of
National Education with placement in State
Kindergarten in Jakarta. Meanwhile the recruitment
of non-permanent teachers based on the needs of
teachers itself and it has obtained approval from the
principal and other permanent teachers. It was
known that almost of civil servant had several
mutations. Their working experiences varies in state
kindergarten in Jakarta, from three to 32 years.
Table 1: Teacher profile based on educational
qualification and status of personnel.
Education
Permanent
teacher
Nonpermanent
teacher
M
F
M
F
High school
-
-
-
1
Diploma
-
-
-
-
Bachelor
-
6
-
1
Table 1 shows that there were eight teachers
consisting of six permanent teachers with civil
servant status and two non-permanent teachers
(honorary teachers). It also describes that all
teachers are female. Teacher qualification was
almost entirely a graduate school, except for a high
school graduate. From the interviews it was known
that the teacher was currently studying
undergraduate degrees majoring in early childhood
through the Open University at the State University
of Jakarta and taking six semesters.
The teacher’s administrative requirements can be
seen in table 2:
Teachers’ Competences to Implement the Character Education in Early Childhood Education
285
Table 2: Teacher’s Administrative Requirements
Quantity
Percentage
6
85,7%
6
85,7%
6
85,7%
6
85,7%
5
71,45%
Table 2 describes teacher’s administrative
requirements. Interestingly, 85,7% of the teachers
had fulfil four criteria which were already had
bachelor degree, compatible educational
background, experiences in teaching and
accomplishment in character education trainings. It
is only 71.45% from all teachers had follow the
competency test and passed it. This implies that
almost all teachers in state kindergarten in Jakarta
have met the academic qualifications required by
Regulation of Minister of Education and Culture
Number 58 Year 2009 regarding the Standard of
Early Childhood.
Teachers of Halimun kindergarten also had
experiences in trainings to strengthen their
competences. The trainings specifically on character
education can be seen in the following figure:
Figure 1: Teacher’s trainings experiences.
The table 3 gives information that the largest portion
of the teacher trainings was attended training in
developing the professional competence. Six teachers have
attended 8 times professional development training, two
teachers have never got it because they were still newbies
and have less than two years teaching experience in
kindergarten. Six (6) from 8 teachers have been trained in
teacher pedagogic competence development with almost 7
in average, but the training themes are different and varied
for each teacher. Six (6) teachers received personality
development training 3 times since they served as
teachers. Based on the results of the study, this training
period is also irregular and not all teachers get it. 6
teachers only had opportunity in average twice times to
attended the social competence training. This training was
rarely offered by the education office in Jakarta nor the
kindergarten teachers organization of Jakarta. They were
offered more often training for the development of
pedagogic skills and teacher professionalism.
4 DISCUSSION
4.1 Personality Competences
In terms of personality competencies, only 12,3
percent of teacher are still on undergraduate while
the others are graduate from early childhood
education and Islamic education. Six out of eight
teachers have been trained in character education.
Each of them got different training based on the
needs and also the basic skill they already have.
Unfortunately, the trainings have not run
continuously and there was still no mapping on
individual teacher capacity.
Almost all of teachers of Halimun kindergarten
have the properties among others; confidence,
patience, true compassion for their students,
understanding, the ability to look at life in a different
way and to explain a topic in a different way,
dedication to excellence, unwavering support,
willingness to help student achieve, and pride in
student's accomplishments.
4.2 Social Competences
Teachers in Halimun kindergarten already have the
effective communication skills. Especially for
students who have constraints with character
education. If students need special treatments,
parents could have discussed it with teachers in class
after school every day based on need. If necessary,
school could have asked for some help from
psychologist or therapist to discuss about behavior
difficulties to children. For formal meetings, which
were scheduled once in a month, teachers
communicated with parents through school
committees as well as in person to optimize
character learning on pupils, the achievement of
character education, obstacles and disruptions in
implementing it
In term of community relationship, teachers on
behalf of school cooperate with communities in
school neighbourhood and participated in a series of
events Indonesia’s Independence Day which held at
school. Not only as a participant but community also
ICES 2017 - 1st International Conference on Educational Sciences
286
have a memorandum of understanding to support
school activities include in character education.
Teacher’s social competences by attended
trainings which were provided by The Education
Office. Some of training which were attended by
teachers were global warming training and trainee
on trainer (ToT).
4.3 Professional Competences
Based on the findings, teachers have ability to
relates guidance to knowledge of children’s
personalities and levels of developments; recognized
dan respond to personal behavioral problems related
to character development or emotional stress; could
moderate interactions with each child based on
child’s specific characteristics; strength, interest and
needs. They also used strategies to aid children in
learning to express emotions in positive ways and
developed and implemented written policies for
effective interaction.
In terms of performance outlook, teachers look
attractive, usually seen through a radiant face,
always smiling in interacting with students. Each
teacher encouraged others to develop proficiency in
skills especially in formative assessment and
classroom management by trainings which
administered by Indonesian Minister of Education.
4.4 Pedagogical Competences
In terms of pedagogic competence, in order to
carried out character education, teachers have
mastered the educational material of the character
itself, and understood that the character of the
students did not develop in the same opportunity. On
behalf of personal learn, teachers provided a variety
of opportunities to communicate verbally and non-
verbally in playful engagements with students and
interacted responsively with children of different
temperaments and levels of sociability. Teachers in
Halimun kindergarten were always looking for ways
to seek the involvement of students in the process of
character education itself. Teachers also did all
activities with a vengeance. Spiritually, the teacher
involved a full self in doing his job.
Teachers have the ability to build a characterized
learning program according to the learning group
they were in. Each teacher developed character
education into the semester's learning plan, monthly,
weekly and daily learning plan and applied it in
daily learning. In a characterized learning plan, the
components include basic competencies, character
set, standard materials, methods and techniques,
media and learning resources, study time and other
carrying capacity. The values of character education
are applied together with the core activities of the
teaching and learning process by a) Selecting the
character values that match the theme and title of the
learning activity; b) Determining indicators of the
development of character values according to the
stages of child development; and c) Determine the
types and stages of activities to be implemented.
Teachers also use varied rules in making character
appraisals and reports
Most of the teachers had attended curriculum
training, assessments and instruments preparation;
educative props workshops and other specific
themes related to early childhood (science,
creativity, arts etc).
5 CONCLUSIONS
A description of the competence of the teachers in
the kindergarten overall was good enough, it can be
seen from the result of research that all teachers
already have the four of competence which is need
to carried out the character of education in
kindergarten. The four competences are personality,
social, professional and pedagogic competencies.
each teacher mastered them differently. Therefore,
teacher competence in learning based on the
character of education in children early aged needs
to be improved through various forms of activities. It
is important because teachers need to understand
more comprehensively the implementation of
character education in early childhood so that the
character education integrated, ranging from
conceptual level up to the level of practise.
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