Developing ELT Teachers Professionally towards Capability
Scaffolding Roles: Reflecting on Their Standing SWOT
Sri Rachmajanti, Gunadi Harry Sulistyo, Suharyadi, Alvi Nurisnaini
Universitas Negeri Malang, Malang, Indonesia
Keywords: Development, ELT, Professional, SWOT, Teachers.
Abstract: ELT teachers’ role in classroom practices has been widely recognized as a key factor not just for students’
learning but also teachers’ professional development. With such perspectives, teachers are supposed to be
competent professionals that should scaffold learners’ mastery of capability optimally beyond competences
in the classroom. To that end, with ever-changing challenges in their profession, ELT teachers are required to
be able to make themselves autonomous learners who always feel the need to make themselves updated in a
number of professional and pedagogical qualities through research, publication, and socialization of their
ideas. As observed from the SWOT quadrant, a preliminary observation, however, reveals several interesting
points to consider in enabling EFL teachers to professionally develop themselves under the learners’
capability development framework. The findings of such a preliminary study are provisional and discussed
with the national policy as the background context.
1 INTRODUCTION
Upon the completion of their undergraduate study,
fresh graduates - being novice teachers - begin to
enter a new life in their teaching career. They are
inevitably confronted with a new milieu in their
workplace in their teaching services. To some, this
new circumstance implores not only their anxiety to
deal with diverse classrooms (Amos, 2008), but also
‘excitement and nervousness’ (Catapano, 2018) in the
profession new to them. Some manage to cope with
the challenges successfully (Catapano, 2018).
However, others give up and even they quit teaching
and never come back in their early profession as it has
been reported by (Greenlee and Dedeugd, 2002) to
refer to the American teachers’ early teaching
experiences. The American phenomena as observed
by (Greenlee and Dedeugd, 2002) and reported by
(Carver-Thomas and Darling-Hammond, 2017)
happen because novice teachers ‘are caught off guard,
and left to sink or swim’ (Greenlee and Dedeugd,
2002). These new-comer teachers are noticed.
However, their difficulties in coping with new
challenges they encounter are not appropriately
addressed by stakeholders. What messages do all
these impart to us in the context of professional
development? It is obvious that professional
development needs to start as instantaneously as
possible as a novice teacher enters their teaching
profession, which later should be continued along the
way of their teaching professional services.
Continuous professional development is then a must
if teachers are to play a significant role at their
optimum teaching conduct in making students learn.
With this in mind, then a new teacher advocacy is
evitable as novice teachers need to have the sense of
‘being in’ and ‘feeling seen’ (Bills, Giles and Rogers,
2016) in their early professional development by not
only more professional teachers but also expert
teachers.
Continuing professional development (CPD) is
essentially professional changes, and to this end,
teacher advocacy is needed and should be inevitably
conducted along the way teachers are functional
through their teaching professional services from
the time upon formal education completion to
teaching services. As such, CPD as the teacher's
career development should not be fragmented in
practice. There are whys and wherefores to do so, two
of which are critical. In the first place, in the very
local circumstance, teachers are obliged to implement
innovations in education as they are imposed to carry
out the government policy. For instance, the launch
of the new curriculum a.k.a K-13 poses teachers to
new policies in the teaching of English. Reviews upon
Rachmajanti, S., Sulistyo, G., Suharyadi, . and Nurisnaini, A.
Developing ELT Teachers Professionally towards Capability Scaffolding Roles: Reflecting on Their Standing SWOT.
DOI: 10.5220/0008412103510362
In Proceedings of the 2nd International Conference on Learning Innovation (ICLI 2018), pages 351-362
ISBN: 978-989-758-391-9
Copyright
c
2019 by SCITEPRESS – Science and Technology Publications, Lda. All rights reserved
351
the previous curriculum on content standards, process
standards, and assessment standards, not to exclude
lesson planning sophistication, come up with new
ideas for the teachers to implement in the classroom,
which requires adequate not just socialization but also
dissemination. Content standards are essentially
comprised of formulations of perceived competences
students need to learn that are outlined in the syllabus.
Teachers are supposed to be able to understand these
competences and then transform them through
teaching learning processes in the classroom into
functional language skills on the part of the students.
However, this task is taxing for teachers to do
(Panjaitan, 2013). Problems also arise in the
interpretation of the so-called scientific approach as
the umbrella term for process standards. While this
approach to teaching is considered appropriate for
teachers to make students learn the desired
competences stipulated in K-13 (Kementerian
Pendidikan dan Kebudayaan, 2014), it is not always
agreeable for the purpose of English teaching that has
already had myriads of its ‘own’ methods of teaching
to choose from, let alone, in the post method era
(Kumaravadivelu, 2006). Similar challenges also
surface with the introduction of authentic assessment
as evaluation standards in K-13. All in all, teachers
are faced with challenges in implementing K-13
(Ahmad and Mardiana, 2014; Hendriani, 2016)).
Teachers then need ‘a bridge’ to realize the new
policy appropriately in the classroom. It is in such a
circumstance that teachers need appropriate advocacy
for the optimum implementation of K-13.
Advances in theories of learning also pose
teachers to challenges in their profession as well.
Once there was a time when a learner was treated like
a blank container. It is the role of the teacher to fill up
the container with information. Thus, learning a
language is imparting knowledge about language to
learners. Learners are bombarded with massive
information about language. Teaching was thus
teacher-centered. But now, it is over. This is now the
era of student-centered learning. Teachers need to
shift their role from the idea as the knower to that as
a learning facilitator that allows students to construct
their knowledge and skills. Does this happen
smoothly? In Turkey, for instance, in spite of the fact
that there was a switch in the policy of using the
traditional approach to the constructivist one,
practically teaching practices still adheres to the
traditional approach and is in contradiction to the
principles of constructivism (Gül, 2016). In the
Indonesian context, pessimism on the implementation
of constructivist ideas was once evident as observed
(Kuswandono, 2004).
Other external forces obviously stand in the
teacher way to professionalism. These among other
things include technological advances in information
and technology, millennial generations’ learning
habits and learning needs, and recently, challenges
associated with the industrial revolution 4.0,
particularly with the emergence of MOOC Massive
Open Online Courses, which should actually have
plus values for teachers. Sooner or later, teachers
need to be aware of their arrival, face them, and
harness them for the purpose of their classroom
efficiency and effectiveness.
With these aforementioned challenges, teachers in
service are inevitably barraged by a number of forces
which potentially affect their optimum performance
in the classroom. When this happens again and again,
teachers’ performance will be degraded gradually,
and students’ learning will be considerably affected.
While teachers play a key role in the classroom for
student learning, such a saddening condition of
teachers is not expected to take place. Therefore,
supporting teachers for professional development is a
compelling need. By analogy, teacher teaching is
analogous to car use. As cars have after sales services
upon purchase to maintain their optimum functional
performance, teachers are inevitably in need of
continued support upon completion of their formal
education throughout their professional career.
Lessons have been shown in a number of teacher
professional development programs. The subjects of
the development programs were teachers of English
language learners (ELLs) of immigrants. There were
four programs run in Balderas Elementary School in
Fresno, California; the Funds of Knowledge for
Teaching; at Starlight Elementary School in
Watsonville, California; and the Puente Project.
There were topics dealt with and activities run in
these programs. But the focus was put on among other
things strengthening teachers’ knowledge on content-
based language teaching, enhancing knowledge on
language acquisition, and doing collaborative
research. These programs were claimed to be
successful in providing teachers with significant
learning understandings. However, a concern on
these programs was launched with regards to the need
of conceptual and empirical bases to run the program
better.
Turkey experiences with English teacher
professional development (Borg, 2015) have been
another interesting example. Atlı reported a
professional development through ICELT (In-service
Certificate in English Language Teaching) at Bilkent
University (Borg, 2015). The program, intended for
new graduates, novice teachers, and novice lecturers,
ICLI 2018 - 2nd International Conference on Learning Innovation
352
had a focus on these: strengthening their teaching
skills, empowering them with theoretical knowledge
pertaining to classroom practice, and enhancing their
professional use of English. The program was run in
the form of regular reflective discussions on
classroom practice and professional issues pertaining
to teaching. In addition to that, personal tutoring and
mentoring was also held. The program brought about
outputs among other things as follows. The
participants better understood institutional level
objectives, teaching methodology and learner profile.
Their analysis skills in textbook materials improved,
and so did their using and adapting institutional
course books and supplementary materials.
Previous programs on English teacher
professional development have demonstrated
professional enhancement on teachers’ knowledge
and skills which impact positively on their students’
learning (Banegas et al., 2013; Bando and Li, 2014;
Giraldo, 2014; Gore et al., 2017). These studies,
however, were products of foreign contexts
considerably different from those of Indonesia. As
teaching conducts are uniquely contextual, EFL
teacher professional development needs to be
typically suited to Indonesian settings. The principles
for successful EFL teacher professional development
as we believe work best need to be sustainable,
teacher-driven/autonomous, personal/individual,
self-accountable, knowledge-based, deliberating,
belief-based, and tailor-based.
We support the idea that upon joining a CPD
program, teachers are not expected to become merely
the consumers and the reproducers of knowledge
(Borg, 2015) let alone, the knowledge wrapped in the
name of innovation is frequently flying off their local
ground as the knowledge is an import from other
cultures and contexts. We argue that as teaching is
unique experiences, teachers equipped with
pedagogical knowledge and their encounter with a
class constitutes a unique opportunity for them to see
what best works in their context. Thus, teachers have
a chance to formulate and/or hypothesize their best
teaching practices unique to their context. To that
end, we have been continually in continuous search
of answers which will become not only theoretical but
also empirical bases to establish a CPD sustainable
framework for English teachers. We have been
heading toward formulating a teacher sustainable
support framework through which a reflective
professional development practice is exerted in which
the three pillars: teacher research, publication, and
best practice dissemination become our primary
concern. In a way, the CPD framework for English
teachers we wish to develop is in line with Borg’s
conception of CPD (Borg, 2010) which is based on
teacher research. Teacher research may be defined as
an investigation by teachers that is designed carefully
to answer questions pertaining their own class which
allows them to develop professional undertakings by
reviewing research articles, design belief-based
innovative teaching strategies, and ultimately
improve their instructional delivery strategy (Borg,
2010).To us, all these undertakings should ultimately
reside on students’ improved performance. From
teachers’ side, however, we are interested in revealing
their views in terms of their strengths, weaknesses,
opportunities, and threats.
2 THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK
The law for Indonesian teachers (Kementerian
Pendidikan dan Kebudayaan, 2007) postulates that
teachers are legally proclaimed as a profession of
dignity since they are assigned to prepare and produce
smart and competitive human resources as expected
for the 2025 vision of education in this millennium
era. As a consequence, they are compelled to develop
their profession continuously to come across internal
and external changes and uncertainties happening in
the modern era which requires adaption and
adjustment. One of the efforts to do so is likely by
promoting a learning atmosphere or community in
which they can always upgrade their personal, social,
pedagogical and professional competences through
various ways. To manifest and evaluate the latter two
attributes, they can obtain their profile through formal
performance evaluation suspended by self-evaluation
to sustain their professionalism.
Further, teachers as professionals are subject to
periodically/continuously upgrade themselves so as
to nurture their professionalism. (Davidson et al.,
2012) and the Indonesian laws through the
Government Law for Lecturers and Teachers (2005,
2007) & the Ministry Education and Culture (2012)
concerning professional development (henceforth
PD) efforts have put them into five categories. In the
first place, PD needs to reinforce Personally-Initiated
Learning (PIL) activities like reading English-related
printed as well virtual materials (including research
journals), taking online courses, sharing ideas with
colleagues, applying innovative instructional
strategies, empowering collaborative projects with
teachers from other countries, and conducting
research. Secondly, PD is an access for teachers to
join Organized Professional Development (OPD)
programs as participating many workshops, seminars,
and trainings on English education and pedagogy, and
Developing ELT Teachers Professionally towards Capability Scaffolding Roles: Reflecting on Their Standing SWOT
353
joining short summer courses. Next, PD allows
teachers to publish their innovative work (IW), for
instance, joining and winning some international
writing competitions, writing instructional design
scripts to facilitate teacher training, producing
electronic instructional materials. PD is the medium
within which teachers become Qualified Professional
Teachers (QPT) such as holding a teacher certificate
issued by the government or international agents,
possessing computer certificates (Microsoft, for
example), upgrading qualification into master’s or
doctorate degree as well as having a certified master
teacher; and finally, PD engages teachers in More
Advanced Roles (MAR), for examples, being a 2013
regional, provincial or national curriculum instructor,
or they become a teacher assessor at school. All in all,
the aforementioned efforts of PD are indispensable
for English teachers for the sake of English
instruction betterment in Indonesia.
The need to hold PD programs is context
dependent as teacher contexts are uniquely different
across places. As a consequence of this, the success
in conducting PD does not depend on a fixed set of
all-inclusive criteria to rule PD programs that will be
applicable to any situation in any place. Borg (2015)
however observes that there are favourable conditions
that commonly characterize better conducts of a CPD
program. The first circumstance is that PD programs
that are appropriate to the needs of teachers’ teaching
and their students’ learning matter are commonly
fruitful. In such a PD program, participants’
engagement in the program activities is commonly
optimum. To achieve such a prolific program,
accurate needs assessment should be appropriately
conducted. The next condition is that teachers need to
be involved in determining the program contents and
activities. When teachers’ needs are identified
accurately, CPD program developers need to hear
what knowledge and skills teachers are expected to
acquire in joining the program and how they will
achieve the knowledge and skills in the program. A
survey may serve suitably for the purpose prior to the
CPD program development (Rachmajanti, Sulistyo
and Suharyadi, 2017). Another important point for a
fruitful CPD program is teachers need to be backed
up by the school management. Inviting teachers to
join a CPD program maybe falls short if the teachers
do not get the permission from the school principal to
join such a program. Another form of management
supports is that the school management welcomes the
CPD program to be conducted in site, in that the
school hosts the CPD program and supports the
delivery of all the program activities in the host
school. Related to the school management support,
CPD program activities need also to be directly linked
to classroom practices. As such, these CPD activities
are embedded to teachers’ on-site job. With such an
on-site strategy, CPD programs are contextually
aligned to the school milieu. Next, productive CPD
programs are those in which, on the delivery of CPD
activities, the focus is placed upon exploring and
reflecting practices and beliefs pertaining to teacher
teaching and student learning. (Helyer, 2015) argues
that appropriate use of reflection provides teachers
with a medium of learning that enables them to
develop personally and professionally. In addition to
that, reflection also enables teachers to structure and
to value their experience. With this, teachers can
learn empirically how concepts and theories are put
together in practice. As such teachers’ innovative
thinking is continually enhanced. PD serves also a
medium for teachers that in carrying out their
innovation in the classroom, they get supports from
not only internal but also external mentoring
processes so that they will be critically engaged upon
receiving knowledge and skills.
A number of studies on CPD programs have been
conducted. (Giraldo, 2014) conducted action research
at a language institute of a Colombian state university
to examine the impact of teacher professional
development program on the in-service English
teachers’ classroom performance. It was revealed that
the participants’ classroom performance improved as
it was evidenced from their teaching that was more
communicative, organized, attentive to students’
needs, and principled as a result of the delivery of
theories, doing practice and reflection, and the tutors’
mentoring during the program activities. The finding
implied that CPD programs need to be conducted on
the bases on not only teachers’ beliefs and needs, but
also effective utilization of theories, practice,
experience, and reflection.
(Rahman et al., 2011) examined the relationship
between teachers’ joining training and their students’
learning achievement. Their sample was a number of
80 female teachers and their corresponding 180 girl
students of grade X. They utilized questionnaires to
collect teachers’ data. Students’ performance was
taken from examination scores. The findings revealed
that teachers’ training was positively correlated with
students’ learning achievement. A similar study by
(Rozati, 2017) also revealed relationships between
EFL teachers’ professional identity as well as EFL
teachers’ institutional identity and their teaching
efficacy with professional identity being a better
predictor of EFL teachers’ teaching efficacy. Still
another study by (Nurichsania and Rachmajanti,
2017) discovered that novice or pre-service teachers
ICLI 2018 - 2nd International Conference on Learning Innovation
354
joining the SM-3T program, one of the Indonesian
government programs for teachers’ professional
development through teaching practices in
underprivileged areas, provided evidence of the
improvement of their pedagogical competences,
especially for the low achiever teachers. This has
been strengthened by (Syahruddin et al., 2013)
claiming that effective teaching is in some instance
influenced by the application of pedagogical
competences.
3 METHOD
This study involves mixed data collection strategies.
In the first stage a survey was conducted. The
variables that were examined deal with teachers’
experience in conducting classroom action research,
publicizing their professional experience through
classroom research in a journal, and presenting their
professional experience in a seminar. In addition, the
questionnaires also asked their strengths, weaknesses,
opportunities, and threats to those who ever carried
out classroom action research, wrote a research-based
article for publicizing their professional experience in
a journal, and shared their professional experience in
a seminar.
For the purpose, a number of some 207 lower
secondary level teachers were involved using
convenience sampling in the survey. In the second
stage informal interviews were exerted to collect the
data on the teachers’ views and opinions regarding
their classroom action research, writing a research-
based article for publicizing their professional
experience in a journal, and presentation on their
professional experience in a seminar. These informal
interviews were conducted to the 22 workshop
participants when a workshop on the socialization of
the results of developing a set of training materials
(Sulistyo, Suharyadi and Rachmajanti, 2017). The
data collected were analysed qualitatively yielding
information on the teachers’ views and opinions
regarding teachers’ classroom action research,
writing a research-based article for publicizing their
professional experience in a journal, and presentation
on their professional experience in a seminar.
4 RESULT AND DISCUSSION
Based on the results of the analyses of the survey data
from workshop participants from 7 provinces in
Indonesia and in-depth interviews with teachers, the
findings are categorized into 4 (four) domains of
teachers’ standing strengths, weaknesses,
opportunities, and threats in terms of their doing
classroom action research, writing a research-based
article for publicizing their professional experience in
a journal, and presentation on their professional
experience in a seminar.
4.1 Teachers’ Strengths
Teachers expressed their views and opinions
regarding their strengths when they had the chance to
carry out classroom action research. The strengths
they felt they had are as follows: they learned the
knowledge on doing classroom action research during
their undergraduate studies, from joining workshops
on classroom action research, and reading books and
previous studies on classroom action research. In
addition to the knowledge on classroom action
research they got, they also learned the skills of doing
action research from practicing the knowledge of
classroom action research by doing it on either
completing their undergraduate studies or teaching
their own class. However, the majority felt that their
teaching experiences were invaluable assets for them
to carry action research. These teaching experiences
included designing teaching learning processes and
implementing their teaching plan in the classes.
However, they felt that both writing a research-
based article for publicizing their professional
experience in a journal, and presenting their
professional experience in a seminar posed them with
some hurdles. Most of the subjects felt that they did
not have sufficient confidence in performing these
two academic endeavours.
One point that may be considered as teachers’
strengths is the availability of having a teacher forum
that has been carried out on a monthly regular basis
(MGMP). In the forum teachers have the opportunity
to exchange ideas, to share teaching experiences
among themselves, and to get refreshed academically
by inviting experts in English teaching to facilitate
customized workshops on demand. These workshops
are organized by the district/city level government.
However, some schools have also their own initiative
to conduct in-house training workshops based on
school needs.
In addition to that, teachers also gain professional
supports from the government on the introduction of
the government new strategic policies. They are
invited to join workshops organized by the central
government facilitated by expert teachers and
lecturers invited for the purpose from universities. An
obvious example is the workshop on the
implementation of the latest curriculum K-13.
Developing ELT Teachers Professionally towards Capability Scaffolding Roles: Reflecting on Their Standing SWOT
355
A more important side for teachers’ strengths is
their engagement in a more formal and structured
CPD. It is an undeniable fact that some teachers are
motivated to qualify themselves by joining graduate
studies. More surprisingly, rather than get the fund
from the government, they have financially supported
their graduate studies on their own. By having
graduate studies, it is expected that their knowledge
and skills on both pedagogical and professional
competences as aspired in Teachers Law no. 14 year
2005 will improve significantly.
These workshops and teachers’ graduate studies
are considered positive for their professional
development. Thus, they constitute strong sides for
teachers to function more academically in doing
classroom action research, writing a research-based
article for publicizing their professional experience in
a journal, and presentation on their professional
experience in a seminar.
4.2 Teachers’ Weaknesses
Points of weaknesses teachers face may be
differentiated from internal and external sides. In
terms of internal sides, teachers are observed as
having these undesirable disadvantages: a low
frequency of academic reading habits, insufficient
writing skills, inadequate research skills, and
tendency for enjoyment in the comfort zones (upon
certification).
Teachers’ low frequency of academic reading
habits is shown from the fact that they faced problems
when they were supposed to find theoretical and
empirical evidence to support their arguments in their
academic piece of writing. On the occasions of
workshops on academic writing, the questions they
asked were the sources of concepts and previous
studies pertaining to the topic they were interested in.
This indicates that their reading habits in search of
academic materials fell short. When further asked
their regularity of reading academic materials, mostly
they admitted that they had insufficient time to do so
due to their administrative and teaching work load,
and they felt they did not have the urgency to read
academic materials.
In addition to that, their writing skills of academic
materials were also insufficient. Generally, the
problems teachers faced commonly encompass
organizing ideas, selecting appropriate rhetoric
modes, and still language problems. For instance,
they did not have ideas of the rhetoric moves they had
to use in each part of research-based journal articles
and how to use them appropriately. Their argument in
academic writing was also insufficient. For instance,
they failed to provide evidence for the proposition
they offered. In terms of language features such as
accuracy in grammar forms and dictions, they were
also still inadequate in mastery for academic writing.
The explanation for such inadequacy is that they were
not accustomed to writing academic materials such as
journal articles.
Another point of teachers’ inadequacy is their
research skills. By research skills, it means skills
pertaining to research conduct such as identifying
areas of research concerns, developing classroom
action research procedures, and designing innovative
solutions. For instance, in identifying areas of
research problems, teachers tended to fail to spot the
issues. As a result, what and how to address the
problems in the studies they had ever had were not
clear.
Teachers already certified tended to enjoy their
certification financial remuneration for non-academic
purposes more than academic ones. For instance, they
spent the rewards on consumptive undertakings rather
than academic endeavours such as attending
seminars, or joining workshops using the rewards that
will qualify them more professionally as English
teachers in their teaching services.
Beside those internal aspects, some external ones
also contribute to the ineffectiveness of scaffolding
roles to be professional teachers. Among external
factors are as follows. First, whenever teachers join
a sort of training program for professionalism, the
materials for the training program tend to focus more
on pedagogical domain and are not up to their needs
to develop academically like stuff in relation to how
to conduct teaching-based research (e.g. action
research), how to write an acceptable scientific article
to be locally/ nationally or internationally published.
Not only this, since not all trainers are competently
experienced (most trainers are of S1 graduates with
short-term training on academic domains), the
materials of such topics are not well transferred in the
sense that there might be misconceptions of the topics
delivered. Next, there might be no mentoring program
as well as reflective action by experts in the course of
conducting the action research and writing the result
of study in the form of articles which end up with
confusion and demotivation on the parts of teachers.
(Nunan, 2010) states that writing tasks should follow
the levels of gradation like starting with fully
controlled task to free one. This implies that the
teachers should be scaffolded step by step prior to
reaching self-independence in writing a scientific
journal. As postulated by (Davidson et al., 2012),
publishing innovative academic work, for instance,
joining and winning some international writing
ICLI 2018 - 2nd International Conference on Learning Innovation
356
competitions is one way of making teachers more
professional since they will be able to put forward
ideas in a systematic way to other people. Finally,
there is the unavailability of online platforms for
teachers’ publication in particular under an
authoritative accountable agent which will provide
academic assistance for them in producing scientific
articles.
4.3 Teachers’ Opportunities
Teachers expressed their optimism when they are
engaged in classroom action research, writing a
research-based article for publishing their
professional experience in a journal, and presentation
on their professional experience in a seminar. First,
they believe that engagement in such academic
activities provides them with a room for them to be
trained to think critically and systematically. Since
they have to conduct the research in their own classes,
they are sure that they can identify existing practical
problems of their class to be overcome critically using
innovative strategies they believe can work best in the
problematic class. Also, in designing their innovation
and presenting the result of the research, they get the
advantages of learning to make the design and the
presentation systematically. They feel they have the
chance to solve the problem step by step.
Next, engagement in such academic activities
allows them to become more sensitive to problems
that occur in their class during the teaching and
learning processes. They become thoughtful to
processes in identifying substantial and systematic
problems, tracing the roots of the problem and
selecting a solution most suitable to solve the
problem. They believe that during the teaching and
learning process a sensitive teacher will recognize
that a problem occurs. For instance, when the plan
they have already made is not running well. They will
find out the cause and reasonably change the strategy
to make their students learn better.
Sharing their research findings is also a great
opportunity for them let other colleagues know
unique solutions to the class problems and how the
solutions work. Sharing information is also a chance
for them to get comments and suggestions from other
colleagues. Thus, this is the opportunity for teachers
to understand and be understood about the substance
they are dealing with. Also, the information shared
will help other teacher colleagues who face the same
problem stimulate critically other innovative
strategies for their class problems. In brief, this
improves the quality of teaching and learning process
not only for themselves but also for their colleagues.
Another opportunity that teachers can merit from
conducting their research, publication, and
socialization is that it will give the teacher a great
improvement in their skills in English. To do
research, they need to review relevant literature. As
such, their reading skills and strategies are sharpened.
To present their innovative ideas in a paper
systematically, their writing skills are enhanced. They
also learn to be a leader that has a voice confidently
in public speaking. In presenting their result in a
seminar or conference, teachers learn a lot also: they
will be tested in having public speech in front of the
audience, which it is not easy for them to do so that
they will need to learn and improve after several
times. In the presentation, comments and feedback
from the floor are good practice for them to listen
carefully. Simply, again they have the chances to
improve their language skills and to understand
others, as well as be understood by the audience.
They also have an opportunity to work
collaboratively not only with other teachers but also
with other lecturers. In solving a classroom problem,
for instance, they can work jointly starting from
identifying the problem, selecting the strategy or
media, designing a lesson plan, developing learning
materials, implementing the action until recording
students’ learning experiences. They can also
collaborate in carrying out a research project and
writing an article to be published. A teacher can be
the first project initiator or the first article author. Or,
s/he can be the co-project initiator or co-author.
Finally, teachers are of the beliefs that by having
those aforementioned opportunities, they have the
chance they are essentially trained to be academically
accountable. By being accountable, it means that they
will be responsible for all conducts they do in the
classroom in the light of enhancing and improving
students’ learning achievement.
As teachers are considered the most important in-
school impact factor on the quality of students’
achievement (Snoek et al., 2009), they have ample
opportunities to broaden knowledge and skills on
doing research, article journal writing, and sharing
information based their research. The available
evidence suggests that the main driver variation in
student learning at school is the quality of the teachers
(Barber and Mourshed, 2007). Based on the cycle
nature of classroom action research, then a teacher
must continually enlarge and improve their
knowledge and skills in those three areas. By doing
this, they will not be left behind in solving practical
class problems as they are always updated
academically to cope with the class problems.
Developing ELT Teachers Professionally towards Capability Scaffolding Roles: Reflecting on Their Standing SWOT
357
4.4 Threats for Teachers
Teachers also confront threats in connection with
joining the workshop. The threats derive from both
internal and external sides. Internally, teachers feel
lazy to take part in any scientific activities as it takes
their time and energy to do so. According to them,
they have been burdened with excessive teaching load
and administrative work: they must teach at least 24
teaching hours in a week and involve in any school
activities. They attend the school in the morning and
leave it in the late afternoon. Sometimes, they have
extra hours at school and home to complete their
works. It is then difficult for them to manage time of
teaching and fulfilment of professional development.
This is a life cycle or routine they do daily. When it
becomes a habit, it will be hard for them to change it.
Secondly, although they are aware that they have
to improve their teaching and professionalism, they
are reluctant to allocate their money for a recharging
program. Their monthly salary from certification is
sufficient only to renovate their houses, buy new cars,
and/or become world trotters. There is a tendency that
they follow a modern lifestyle which is money
oriented. We are afraid that this type of perception
will affect the atmosphere of the school. For example,
they are willing to attend a workshop or training if
they are paid. They are available to be involved in the
school activities if they are appreciated with money.
This type of orientation is dangerous for their
teaching survival.
Thirdly, pertinent to such an advancement, it goes
without saying the government has done its best to
perform educational reforms by modifying the
content of curriculum to prepare human resources
being capable to compete in the global era. At last, as
a consequence, teachers are subject to moral
responsibilities to pursue all the changes in education.
Externally, in this millennium era teachers are also
confronted with threats which can be positively
transformed into challenges for them in the terms of
technological advances, learning theories, theories on
language, teaching methodologies, and state policies
as well as moral responsibilities. Teachers’ position
may be replaced by technology in the future.
Nowadays, learning sources and facilities are
available online through YouTube, Facebook, Yahoo.
Google, etc. in which MOOCs become ubiquitous.
They contain interesting and current information that
can be accessed anytime and anywhere within the
seconds. Students can open and learn the topics they
like from home, school, café, etc. and via mobile,
laptops, or personal computers. In this regard,
students do not need to meet and hear from teachers
to understand something. As a result, students
probably know better than teachers do concerning the
learning materials. Therefore, teachers should be
open towards the advancement of science and
technology and integrate technology in teaching so
that their instruction becomes more attractive and
meaningful.
Along with these, in this hi-tech era teachers are
simultaneously challenged to make use of technology
in upgrading themselves for the sake of students’
betterment in instructional process. The availability
of Internet, laptop, gadget and other technology-
based equipment may be of great assistance for them
to be more creative and innovative in teaching if only
they were not illiterate.
Next, the developments of learning theories,
theories on language, teaching methodologies are by
no means unavoidable delays for nowadays teachers
as the ways students learn now are different from
decades ago that is they are required to explore,
analyze, synthesize, make associations in order to
derive at final construct. Therefore, the ways the
teachers teach them should be in line with how the
students are engaged in instructional process,
reducing the active role of lecturing. Moreover,
learning a language is at the moment integrated into
the delivery of content, the so-called teaching
language across curriculum (Coyle, Hood and Marsh,
2010; Brown and Lee, 2015).
Second, the ASEAN network called ASEAN
Economic Community (AEC) or Masyarakat
Ekonomi Asean (MEA) is now open and it enables
people to migrate and work in foreign countries.
They, including English teachers, can apply for jobs
in ASEAN countries as long as they meet the
qualifications set up by the community. An example
of such qualifications for ASEAN countries in
educational contexts is the-so-called ASEAN
University Network-Quality Assurance (AUNQA).
These standardize qualifications agreed by ASEAN
countries that require human resources to satisfy the
standards. For example, an architect of an Indonesian
national can demonstrate their expertise in Singapore
if s/he is qualified to fill that position according the
standard. In the context of education, the profession
of a teacher is also potential and promising to be
competed. An English teacher from Malaysia can
serve as an English teacher in one of the public
schools in Indonesia in the event that the school needs
him/her and he/she meets the required qualifications.
In other words, this implies that if English teachers of
Indonesia nationals do not upgrade themselves, their
positions are not safe enough. They probably lose
competitive positions in their own county. Teachers
ICLI 2018 - 2nd International Conference on Learning Innovation
358
form other countries that are more competent and
professional are ready to replace.
Our observations as presented in the previous
sections indicate that teachers have strengths and
opportunities in engaging themselves in academic
activities of researching, article writing for journal
publication and sharing research results through
seminars besides teaching. However, they are also
confronted with challenges and threats. The findings
suggest that teachers gain more positive values i.e.
they have more strengths and opportunities than
negatives ones challenges and threats. While their
strengths and opportunities constitute more important
assets for teachers to develop more professionally,
challenges and threats the faced can be made
minimum through a number of conceptual arguments
and empirical evidence as well as normative
approaches. What follows is the rationale for
providing the meaning of the findings of the present
study.
The Government Law No. 14 Year 2005 on
teachers and lecturers states clearly that teachers are
professional educators whose main responsibility
includes educating, teaching, guiding, directing,
training, evaluating learners. It is obvious that this
law does not state explicitly teachers’ responsibility
to conduct research; neither does it state teachers’
responsibility to publish academic articles in journals.
According to this law, teachers’ main responsibility
is those activities associated with teaching activities.
However, according to the Regulation of the Minister
of Education and Culture No. 18 Year 2007, it is
stipulated therein that teachers conduct academic
activities such as researching and joining academic
forums. Put together, then it can be concluded that
teachers’ responsibility includes teaching and
researching as well as activities related to their
research. If this conclusion is correct, then our ideas
of intending to engage teachers in academic activities
like carrying out classroom action research, writing a
research-based article for publicizing their
professional experience in a journal, and presentation
on their professional experience in a seminar does not
violate the existing formal and legal regulations.
Ideally, teachers deliver their instructional activities
based on empirical evidence of their research results
as well as informed conceptual knowledge which is
synthesized with their beliefs about successful
teaching contextually. Thus, their teaching is a
reflective conduct which is a collaborative, mentor-
based and/or peer-based framework. Under such a
framework, teachers should be put as continuous
learners. This reflects the idea of (Bransford, Brown
and Cocking, 2000), who state that essentially
teachers need to upgrade themselves professionally
by becoming continuous learners. But, in what way
can they learn to become professional?
According to (Bransford, Brown and Cocking,
2000), teachers learn better to become professional in
a number of different ways. In the first place, they
build their professionalism through reflection upon
their own teaching conducts. With reflection upon
own practice, this implies the role of their cognition
within which lies their belief (Calderhead, 1995;
Borg, 2001, 2003, 2006) and self-efficacy (Guskey,
1988; Bandura, 1997). In support to this, a number of
previous studies have substantiated the link between
teachers’ belief and classroom practice (Deilami and
Pourghasemian, 2016; Xiong, 2016; Gilakjani and
Sabouri, 2017) and teachers’ self-efficacy and
classroom practice as well (Gavora, 2010; Skaalvik
and Skaalvik, 2010; Klassen and Tze, 2014). Next,
teachers also learn to become professional from their
encounter with other teachers. There are ways
teachers may interact each other professionally. Get-
together activities teachers can commonly hold may
take the form of workshops and seminars. A study by
(Rahman et al., 2011) substantiated the role of
teachers’ training, in which interaction among
teachers by all accounts took place, in students’
learning output. In addition, teachers become better in
their teaching performance, classroom management,
assessment procedures, and human relationships with
students and school internal stake holders. All these
arguments support the findings of the present study.
The presence of teacher educators in the teachers’
schools is also an important factor playing a role in
teacher professionalism. A program run by Center for
Laboratory School Development of Universitas
Negeri Malang has been an example of such an
activity. A number of lecturers have been involved in
teacher mentoring activities and the so-called school
clinic activity on a weekly regular basis. Not only do
students get the advantages, more importantly
teachers also feel that they have been academically
supported by lecturers during the lecturers’ school
visit. They can not only consult their teaching
problems in the classroom but they can also consult
their research conducts during the lecturers’ visit.
Giraldo’s study (2014) obviously supports the
presence of experts in school as a professional
development program, in that teacher performed
more communicatively in teaching; they were also
organized in their teaching delivery; their attention to
their students’ learning needs also became better, and
finally, they held more principled teaching delivery in
the classroom.
Developing ELT Teachers Professionally towards Capability Scaffolding Roles: Reflecting on Their Standing SWOT
359
Another medium for teachers to make them
professional is their involvement in specific teacher
enhancement projects that are specifically designed to
enhance teachers’ performance. A very obvious
example of such an activity has been a national
program - the so-called pioneering schools with
international standards. Selected schools with the top-
level rank were assigned to implement such a national
policy. Among the activities is subject-matter
teachers were to teach the content in English. Not all
subject-matter teachers were able to do the new
responsibility. As a result, in-house trainings to
enable subject-matter teachers to teach in English
were conducted. Teachers’ English competence as a
result of such in-house training is empirically
evidenced (Rachmajanti, Sulistyo and Anugerahwati,
2018).
Teachers’ professionalism may be achieved
through their initiative to join graduate programs
independently. Such teachers’ autonomous initiative
is a reflection of their motivation to upgrade
themselves professionally. The phenomenon of
pursuing independently graduate studies seems to be
ubiquitous. However, a study by (Arar and
Abramowitz, 2017) indicates very interesting
findings, a part from professionalism purposes. They
revealed that in Arab contexts, teachers pursued
graduate studies mainly to self-fulfil their desire and
to have further education. In addition, Arab teachers
in their study were motivated to have social mobility
by pursuing graduate studies. Meanwhile, orientation
for professional development for them is less
important. Their other motivation to further their
graduate education is convenience in terms of ease:
close to home and still deployed while pursuing
graduate degrees. Meanwhile, for the subjects of their
study, the college credibility was not important. A
part from the findings of the study by (Arar and
Abramowitz, 2017), a personal observation in
teaching such teachers indicates that upon their
graduation with the new attribute, the confidence and
the pride of teachers pursuing such independent
graduate studies become boosted. Possibly, this -
confidence and pride - is the important investment
such teachers gain in pursuing further graduate
studies, which will become a basis for them to be
responsible professionally with their new attribute in
their future teaching services.
More opportunities to learning about teaching
from outside i.e. informal yet professional work are
more open nowadays. The availability of a number of
MOOCs allows teachers to have freedom to choose
the one suitable and convenient to their work load at
school. (Perveen, 2018), however, revealed low level
of participation of teachers joining such an e-course,
apart from the benefits teachers gained like
improvement in language skills and pedagogical
knowledge and skills. In Indonesian contexts, (Silvia,
no date) examined the use of Coursera as a medium
for professional development among teachers. The
findings indicate that in spite of the fact of its well
organized structure, effectiveness, and roles of the
materials to improve teacher teaching practice, host
institutions from which the teachers come still play a
little role in supporting them to participate for their
professional development. In Japan contexts,
(Manning, Morrison and McIlroy, 2014) revealed that
both teachers and students could benefit from joining
Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs). There are
learning sources for both students and teachers to
access for better learning outcome and continued
professional development respectively.
5 CONCLUSION
There are ways teachers can take to professionalize
themselves. However, the existing body of
knowledge on previous research indicates that
teachers’ involvement in their classroom research is
an important factor for them to develop their
professionalism (Kirkwood and Christie, 2006;
Cordingley, 2015; Holmqvist, Bergentoft and Selin,
2018). We are also of the strong belief that activities
accompanying teacher research also play a significant
role in shaping their professionalism.
The teachers’ pedagogical and professional
competences in Indonesia have not been satisfactorily
managed although there exist lots of professional
development programs conducted by either
government or non-government institutions.
It is recommended then to always evaluate any
sorts of teacher professional development programs,
and what we can suggest is the carrying out of
reflective training in which teachers are trained and
most of the time accompanied by experts until they
are personally independent to hold classroom action
research themselves, write a research-based academic
article, and be published online. With these,
Indonesian EFL teachers will certainly exist in its
academic and professional sense.
REFERENCES
Ahmad, D. and Mardiana, M. (2014) ‘Kurikulum 2013
dalam Persepsi dan Interpretasi Guru-guru Bahasa
Inggris’, BAHTERA: Jurnal Pendidikan Bahasa dan
ICLI 2018 - 2nd International Conference on Learning Innovation
360
Sastra, 13(1), pp. 7280.
Amos, J. (2008) TEACHING IN CHANGING TIMES:
Survey of New Teachers Finds Most Feel Prepared for
Classrooms and See Teaching as a Lifelong Profession,
Alliance for Excellent Education. Available at:
https://all4ed.org/articles/teaching-in-changing-times-
survey-of-new-teachers-finds-most-feel-prepared-for-
classrooms-and-see-teaching-as-a-lifelong-profession/
(Accessed: 13 August 2018).
Arar, K. and Abramowitz, R. (2017) ‘Motivation and
choice of teachers to pursue their postgraduate studies
in an ethnic minority college’, Journal of Applied
Research in Higher Education, 9(4), pp. 616629.
Bando, R. and Li, X. (2014) The Effect of In-Service
Teacher Training on Student LEarning of English as a
Second Language. IDB-WP-529.
Bandura, A. (1997) Self-efficacy: The Exercise of Control.
New York: Freeman Company.
Banegas, D. et al. (2013) ‘Teacher professional
development through collaborative action research:
Impact on foreign English-language teaching and
learning’, Educational Action Research, 21(2), pp.
185201.
Barber, M. and Mourshed, M. (2007) How the world’s best-
performing schools come out on top. London:
McKinsey.
Bills, A. M., Giles, D. and Rogers, B. (2016) ‘Being In"
and" Feeling Seen" in Professional Development as
New Teachers: The Ontological Layer (ing) of
Professional Development Practice’, Australian
Journal of Teacher Education, 41(2), p. n2.
Borg, S. (2001) ‘Key concepts in ELT: Teachers’ beliefs’,
ELT Journal, 55(2), pp. 186188.
Borg, S. (2003) ‘Teacher cognition in language teaching: A
review of research on what language teachers think,
know, believe, and do’, Language teaching, 36(2), pp.
81109.
Borg, S. (2006) Teacher Cognition and Language
Education: Research and Practice. London:
Continuum.
Borg, S. (2010) ‘Language teacher research engagement’,
Language teaching, 43(4), pp. 391429.
Borg, S. (2015) ‘Professional development for English
language teachers: perspectives from higher education
in Turkey’. Ankara: British Council. Available at:
https://englishagenda.britishcouncil.org/sites/default/fi
les/attachments/british_council_cpd.pdf.
Bransford, J. D., Brown, A. L. and Cocking, R. R. (2000)
How people learn. Washington, DC: National
Academy.
Brown, H. D. and Lee, H. (2015) Teaching by Principles:
An Interactive Approach to Language Pedagogy. 4th
Editio. New York: Pearson.
Calderhead, J. (1995) ‘Teachers: Beliefs and knowledge’,
in Berliner, D. C. and Calfee, R. C. (eds) Handbook of
Educational Psychology. 1st editio. New York:
Routledge, pp. 709725.
Carver-Thomas, D. and Darling-Hammond, L. (2017)
Teacher turnover: Why it matters and what we can do
about it. Palo Alto, CA: Learning Policy Institute.
Catapano, J. (2018) The Teaching Profession: What to Tell
a Struggling New Educator, K-12 News, Lessons &
Shared Resources By Teachers, For Teachers.
Available at: http://www.teachhub.com/teaching-
profession-what-tell-struggling-new-educator
(Accessed: 13 August 2018).
Cordingley, P. (2015) ‘The contribution of research to
teachers’ professional learning and development’,
Oxford Review of Education, 41(2), pp. 234252.
Coyle, D., Hood, P. and Marsh, D. (2010) Content and
Language Integrated Learning. Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press.
Davidson, G. et al. (2012) Going Forward: Continuing
Professional Development for English Language
Teachers, English Agenda. Available at:
https://englishagenda.britishcouncil.org/sites/default/fi
les/filefield_paths/b413_cpd_for_teachers_v2.pdf
(Accessed: 13 August 2018).
Deilami, F. and Pourghasemian, H. (2016) ‘The Effect of
Teachers’ Beliefs on Improving Students’ English
Language Vocabulary’, ELT Voices- International
Journal for Teachers of English, 6(5), pp. 2432.
Gavora, P. (2010) ‘Slovak pre-service teacher self-efficacy:
Theoretical and research considerations’, The New
Educational Review, 21(2), pp. 1730.
Gilakjani, A. P. and Sabouri, N. B. (2017) ‘Teachers’
Beliefs in English Language Teaching and Learning: A
Review of the Literature’, English Language Teaching,
10(4), pp. 7886.
Giraldo, F. (2014) ‘The impact of a professional
development program on English language teachers’
classroom performance’, Profile Issues in
TeachersProfessional Development, 16(1), pp. 6376.
Gore, J. et al. (2017) ‘Effects of professional development
on the quality of teaching: Results from a randomised
controlled trial of Quality Teaching Rounds’, Teaching
and Teacher Education, 68, pp. 99113.
Greenlee, B. J. and Dedeugd, I. S. (2002) ‘From hope to
despair: the need for beginning teacher advocacy’,
Teacher development, 6(1), pp. 6374.
Gül, A. (2016) Constructivism as a new notion in English
language education in Turkey. The Kent State
University.
Guskey, T. R. (1988) ‘Teacher efficacy, self-concept, and
attitudes toward the implementation of instructional
innovation’, Teaching and teacher education, 4(1), pp.
6369.
Helyer, R. (2015) ‘Learning through reflection: the critical
role of reflection in work-based learning (WBL)’,
Journal of Work-Applied Management, 7(1), pp. 1527.
Hendriani, S. (2016) ‘Permasalahan Guru Bahasa Inggris
dalam Mengimplementasikan Kurikulum 2013 di
SLTA Kabupaten Tanah Datar’, Ta’dib, 18(1), pp. 67
75.
Holmqvist, M., Bergentoft, H. and Selin, P. (2018)
‘Teacher researchers creating communities of research
practice by the use of a professional development
approach’, Teacher development, 22(2), pp. 191209.
Kementerian Pendidikan dan Kebudayaan (2007)
Peraturan Menteri Pendidikan Nasional Republik
Developing ELT Teachers Professionally towards Capability Scaffolding Roles: Reflecting on Their Standing SWOT
361
Indonesia Nomor 16: Standar Kualifikasi Akademik
dan Kompetensi guru. Indonesia.
Kementerian Pendidikan dan Kebudayaan (2014) Konsep
dan Implementasi Kurikulum 2013, Paparan Wakil
Menteri Pendidikan dan Kebudayaan R.I Bidang
Pendidikan. Available at:
https://www.kemdikbud.go.id/kemdikbud/dokumen/Pa
paran/Paparan Wamendik.pdf (Accessed: 13 August
2018).
Kirkwood, M. and Christie, D. (2006) ‘The role of teacher
research in continuing professional development’,
British Journal of Educational Studies, 54(4), pp. 429
448.
Klassen, R. M. and Tze, V. M. (2014) ‘Teachers’ self-
efficacy, personality, and teaching effectiveness: A
meta-analysis’, Educational Research Review, 12, pp.
5976.
Kumaravadivelu, B. (2006) Understanding language
teaching: From method to postmethod. London:
Routledge.
Kuswandono, P. (2004) ‘The Implementation Procedures of
Constructivism’, LLT Journal, 7(1), pp. 1324.
Manning, C., Morrison, B. R. and McIlroy, T. (2014)
‘MOOCs in language education and professional
teacher development: Possibilities and potential’,
Studies in Self-Access Learning Journal, 5(3), pp. 294
308.
Nunan, D. (2010) Task-Based Language Teaching.
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Nurichsania, N. A. and Rachmajanti, S. (2017) ‘Pre-service
teachers’ self-reflection on their pedagogical
competences upon joining the SM-3T program’, in
Proceedings of the 15th Asia TEFL and 64th TEFLIN
International Conference on English Language
Teaching. Yogyakarta: Taylor&Francis Group.
Panjaitan, M. O. (2013) ‘Analisis Standar Isi Bahasa
Inggris SMP dan SMA’, Jurnal Pendidikan dan
Kebudayaan, 19(1), pp. 140155.
Perveen, A. (2018) ‘Role of MOOCs in Pakistani English
Teachers’ Professional Development’, Studies in Self-
Access Learning Journal, 9(1), pp. 3354.
Rachmajanti, S., Sulistyo, G. H. and Anugerahwati, M.
(2018) Workshop on Improving Pedagogical Skills in
Developing Cambridge-Based Materials. Malang.
Rachmajanti, S., Sulistyo, G. H. and Suharyadi (2017)
‘English Teacher Professional Development Training
Practices: Lessons Learned from Indonesian Context’,
in ISOLEC 2017 International Seminar on Language,
Education, and Culture, Organized by Faculty of
Letters. Malang.
Rahman, F. et al. (2011) ‘Relationship between training of
teachers and effectiveness teaching’, International
Journal of Business and Social Science, 2(4), pp. 150
160.
Rozati, F. (2017) ‘Relating EFL teachers’ professional and
institutional identity to their teaching efficacy’, Issues
in Educational Research, 27(4), p. 859.
Silvia, A. (no date) Coursera online courses for EFL
teachers’ professional development. Available at:
https://www.academia.edu/4339880/COURSERA_ON
LINE_COURSES_FOR_EFL_TEACHERS_PROFES
SIONAL_DEVELOPMENT (Accessed: 1 August
2018).
Skaalvik, E. M. and Skaalvik, S. (2010) ‘Teacher self-
efficacy and teacher burnout: A study of relations’,
Teaching and teacher education, 26(4), pp. 10591069.
Snoek, M. et al. (2009) ‘Teacher quality in Europe:
comparing formal descriptions’, in ATEE conference.
Sulistyo, G. H., Suharyadi, S. and Rachmajanti, S. (2017)
Pengembangan Model Profesionalisme Guru Bahasa
Inggris melalui Reflective Training untuk
Menyongsong Tuntutan Pembelajaran Bahasa Inggris
di Millenium ke-3. Malang.
Syahruddin, S. et al. (2013) ‘Teachers Pedagogical
Competence in School-Based Management: Case Study
in A Public Secondary School’, Journal of Education
and Learning (EduLearn), 7(4), pp. 213218.
Xiong, Z. (2016) ‘The Impact of Teacher Education on In-
service English Teachers’ Beliefs about Self’, Journal
of Language Teaching and Research, 7(3), pp. 519
526.
ICLI 2018 - 2nd International Conference on Learning Innovation
362