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Moreover, in some universities the academic culture
is not conducive to implement a system which is
oriented towards quality learning.
On the other hand, internal factors impending
learning process in higher education include students
themselves, motivation, early ability, ability to learn
independently, English mastery, and learning gap.
Low motivation makes students get bored easily,
expect quick yielding, hard to concentrate, cannot
manage time, and lazy to do assignment. Weak early
ability leads to difficulties in understanding course
materials, completing assignments, and
implementing learning strategies. Lastly, learning
gap often occurs between: a) knowledge and
understanding, b) comprehension and competence, c)
competence and willingness to implement, d)
willingness to implement and action, and e) action
and progressive changes (Westbrook et al., 2013).
The external and internal factors above give
negative impacts on the course quality, including the
quality of pedagogy related courses. In teachers
college, developing students’ pedagogical
competence is performed through pedagogy related
courses. It is through pedagogical courses that
students develop their understanding and mastery of
pedagogical competence needed as teachers. Thus, if
pedagogical course is not well organized, the
pedagogical competence that students expect to
develop will not be achieved. Although both internal
and external factors identified by Westbrook et al.
(2013) include teacher education practices in South
Asia, further research need to be done in order to
clearly identify the problems in organizing quality
pedagogical course in Indonesia.
A study on students’ satisfaction on “Pedagogy”
course training conducted by Scoda (2014) found that
the level of satisfaction on the course content and
course design was only around 50%. The study also
found that the students thought the course was too
theorized, lacked practical applications, and needed
better organization and support. Scoda (2014) argued
that further research about needs, limits, and
strategies of organizing pedagogical course is needed
considering its importance and impact for prospective
teachers.
This study would like to describe the current
practice of pedagogical course organized by teachers
college in Indonesia and identify problems that need
to be addressed in order to improve the quality of the
course which include course planning, delivery,
materials and evaluation. This study is also resulted
in some recommended strategies to effectively
develop students’ pedagogical competence as the
ultimate goal of pedagogical course.
2 PEDAGOGICAL
COMPETENCE AND
TEACHERS EDUCATION
Competence is mainly obtained through education
and formed by knowledge, understanding, skill,
value, attitude and interest (Gordon in Mulyasa,
2007). For teachers, competence refers to rational
performance and behaviors to meet certain
specification in conducting educational duties.
Teacher competence includes pedagogical
competence, personal competence, social
competence, and professional competence. Teacher
competence therefore is not only related to ability to
transfer knowledge or information but also to
facilitate students to learn effectively and create
conducive atmosphere to interact with peers and
teacher.
Teacher pedagogical competence plays a pivotal
role in students’ learning process since it deals with
teacher’s ability in organizing the learning process
which is based on understanding on learners,
curriculum, and learning design as well as the use of
educational technology and learners’ ability to
actualize their potentials (Sagala, 2009). Giertz (in
Ryegard, Apelgren, and Olsson, 2010) describes
pedagogical competence as “…the ability and the will
to regularly apply the attitude, knowledge and skills
that promote the learning of the teacher’s students”.
On the context of pedagogical contribution, they
further argues that pedagogical competence equipped
with definite goals and frameworks supports and
facilitates students’ learning.
Pedagogical competence consists of several
indicators below (Sagala, 2009).
Ability to understand learners. Teacher should
understand the characteristics of learners’
development, the principles of learners’
personality development as well as identify
learners’ early ability and potentials.
Ability to design the learning process. Teacher
should be able to do planning starting from
formulating learning objectives, selecting
suitable strategy and method, determining
learning steps and motivating learners. Also,
teacher should be able to organize learning
materials, use learning resources, manage class
and perform evaluation.
Ability to conduct learning that is educative and
dialogic. Teacher should be able to open
learning session by first motivating and
conveying learning objectives, to organize
learning by applying relevant method, to
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