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

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

284

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

High school

Diploma

Bachelor

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

Requirements

Quantity

Percentage

At least a Bachelor degree

85,7%

Compatible to educational

background

85,7%

At least 5 years in teaching

experiences

85,7%

Accomplish character

education trainings

85,7%

Has passed the teacher’s

competency test

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.

REFERENCES

Althof, W., Berkowitz, M. W., 2006. Moral education and

character education: Their relationship and roles in

citizenship education. Journal of moral education,

35(4).

Attakorn, K., Tayut, T., Pisitthawat, K., Kanokorn, S.,

2014. Soft Skill of New Teachers in The Secondary

Schools of Khon Kaen Secondary Educational Service

Area 25, Thailand. Procedia-Social and Behavioral

Sciences, 112, 1010-1013.

Bequet, V., Tūtlys, V., Vaičiūnienė, V., 2012. Social

Competence of Teachers and Students: The Case

Study of Belgium and Lithuania. Lithuania; Vytautas

Magnus University, Lithuania

Beyer, L. E., 1997. The Moral Contours of Teacher

Education. Journal of Teacher Education, 48(4), 245-

254.

Teachers’ Competences to Implement the Character Education in Early Childhood Education

287

Berkowitz, M. W., Melinda, C. B., 2004. Research-based

character education. The Annals of the American

Academy of Political and Social Science, 591(1).

Celik, S. 2011. Characteristics and Competencies for

Teacher Educators: Addressing the Need for Improved

Professional Standards in Turkey. Australian Journal

of teacher Education, Volume 36 (4).

Chapman, A. M., 2011. Implementing Character

Education into School Curriculum. ESSAI: Vol. 9,

(11). The College Publications Digital Commons

http://dc.cod.edu/essai/vol9/iss1/11

Chingos, M. M., Peterson, P. E., 2011. It’s easier to pick a

good teacher than to train one: Familiar and new

results on the correlates of teacher effectiveness. Econ.

Educ. Rev., 30.

Chou, Mei-Ju., Yang, Chen-Hsin., Huang, Pin-Chen.,

2014. The Beauty of Character Education on

Preschool Children’s Parent-Child Relationship.

Procedia-Social and Behavioral Sciences, 143, 527-

533.

Colgan, C., 2003. Making character education work.

American School Board Journal, 190(11).

Haberman, M., 1996. Star teachers of children in poverty.

West Lafayette, IN: Kappa Delta Pi.

Hagger H., McIntyre, D., 2006. Learning Teaching from

Teachers. Realizing the Potential of School-Based

Teacher Education. Mainhead: Open University Press.

Hansen, D. T. (1993). From role to person: The moral

layeredness of classroom teaching. American

Educational Research Journal, 30.

Hansen, D. T., 2001. Teaching as a moral activity. In V.

Richardson (Ed.), Handbook of Research on Teaching.

AERA, Washington. 4

edition.

Hill, H., Rowan, B., Ball, D., 2005. Effects of Teachers’

Mathematical Knowledge for Teaching on Student

Achievement. American Educational Research

Journal, 42 (2).

Ingvarson, L., 1998. Professional Standards: A Challenge

for the AATE? English in Australia.

Jackson, P., Boostrom, R. E., Hansen, D. T., 1993. The

moral life of schools. Jossey-Bass, San Francisco.

Kessler, R. 2000. The soul of education: Help students

find connection, compassion and character at school.

ASCD

Koster, B., Dengerink, J., 2008. Professional Standard for

Teacher Educators: How to Deal with Complexity,

Ownership and Function. European Journal of

Teacher Education.

Kyoung, G. E., Jeon, H. J., 2016. Demand Analysis of

Factors of teaching Competency for Character

Education of Early Childhood Teachers.

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/310785110_

Demand_Analysis_of_Factors_of_Teaching_Compete

ncy_for_Character_Education_of_Early_Childhood_T

eachers

Lave, J., Wenger, E., 1991. Situated Learning: Legitimate

Peripheral Participation. Cambridge University Press,

Cambridge.

Narvaez, D., Lapsley, D. K., 2004. Teaching Moral

Character: Two Strategies for Teacher Education.

https://www3.nd.edu/~dlapsle1/Lab/Articles%20&%2

0Chapters_files/Teaching%20Moral%20Character%2

0Two%20Strategies%20for%20Teacher%20Educatio

n.pdf

Megawangi, R., 2007. Semua Berakar Pada Karakter:

Isu-Isu Permasalahan Bangsa (All Rooted in

Character: Issues of the nAtion’s problems),

Economic Faculty of University of Indonesia

Publisher. Jakarta.

Mulyasa, E., 2012. Manajemen PAUD (Early Childhood

Education Management), Remaja Rosdakarya.

Bandung.

Park, N., Peterson, C., 2006. Character strengths and

happiness among young children: Content analysis of

parental descriptions. Journal of Happiness Studies,

7(3).

Rychen, D. S., Salganik, L. H., 2003. Key Compentencies

for a Succesful Life and a Well-Functioning Society,

Hogrefe & Huber. Guttigen.

Shulman, L. S., 1987. Knowledge and Teaching:

Foundations of New Reform. Harvard Educational

Review.

Solomon, D., Watson, M., Battistich, V., 2001. Teaching

and schooling effects on moral/prosocial development.

In V. Richardson (Ed.), Handbook of Research on

Teaching. Washington, D.C. American Educational

Research Association.

Taylor, C., Nolen, S., 2004. Classroom Asessment. Upper

Saddle River, Prentice. NJ.

Ulger, M., Yigittir, S., Ercan, O., 2014. Secondary School

Teacher’s Beliefs on Character Education

Competency. Procedia – Social and Behavioral

Sciences, Volume 131, 442-449.

Wenger, E., 1998. Communities of Practise: Learning,

Meaning and Identity, Cambridge University Press.

Cambridge.

ICES 2017 - 1st International Conference on Educational Sciences

288