Teaching Practice is not Enough for EFL Teachers: Voices from IAIN Surakarta

Teaching Practice is not Enough for EFL Teachers: Voices from IAIN Surakarta Indonesian Journal of EFL and Linguistics Vol. 4 No. 2, 2019 eISSN: 2503-4197, pISSN: 2527-5070 www. indonesian-efl-journal.org Teaching Practice is not Enough for EFL Teachers: Voices from IAIN Surakarta Imroatus Solikhah IAIN Surakarta corresponding e-mail: Teguh Budiharso Mulawarman University e-mail: Abstract: This study explores teaching practices for English Language Education program of IAIN Surakarta were implemented to link the gaps between theory and actual needs at schools. Relying on the qualitative approach, this study used content analysis as the main data sources, observation and interview to collect data. The results of the study show that teaching practice for the ELT in IAIN Surakarta indicate restrictions. With overall duration of 16 weeks, teaching practices at IAIN Surakarta is set in 6 credits, each of which consists of (1) micro teaching (2 credits), (2) administrative observation, (3) classroom observation, (4) classroom teaching practices. During the field practices, complaints from mentor teachers appear that practical students are not well prepared in teaching skills and limited knowledge is performed to English competence performance in the classroom. Students claim that preparation in the itinerary of teaching practice they received from campus are not definitely sufficient as too many administrative processes are emphasized and mentoring system does not suffice to equip teaching skills. Keywords: classroom observation, mentor teachers, teaching practices Indonesian Journal of EFL and Linguistics, 4(2), 2019 247 Imroatus Solikhah and Teguh Budiharso 1. INTRODUCTION Teacher development is currently receiving focus of attention in the teaching preparation and profession development all over the world. Attentions have been made insides classroom and outside within which the teachers should devote their teaching careers at schools and their community (Tarman, 2012). Richards (2015) highlights that teachers’ development program starts from the competences teachers should accomplish to strengthen their performance inside the classroom and those they should perform to support legitimacy in the society outside the classroom. Programs to support the development will begin from the design of teaching practices equipped for students of teaching program in the university that offers teacher education and teacher training. The program is incurred in the teaching curriculum that induces teaching development for the training. This will take effect on the curriculum design where considerations on learning outcomes that use standardized teaching criteria should be included (Richards, 2010; Gan, 2012). In Indonesia, the standard reference on teaching practices has been served in the PPG (Development Teacher’s Profession) and PLPG (Apprenticeship for Teacher Profession Development). PPG is previously served for public teachers’ status. New policy enacts that PPG is also applicable for students learning at teacher education faculty prior to their graduation taking a four year teaching program. PLPG, on the other hand, is particularly designed for the students striving to graduate from a 4 year teaching program. Scholars (Richards, 2010; Gan, 2012; Pak, Boorer & Chakravarthy, 2013; Budiharso, 2015) admit that in the implementation of teaching practices gaps remain exist in plethora of versions specifying the implementation of students’ knowledge and real teaching practices. Knowledge on instructional design including curriculum, teaching materials, syllabus, teaching methodology and assessment is of opinion that performs different concept between what they achieve from theory in campus and at schools. Problem on teaching competences and oral proficiency are two most predominant pitfalls English teachers should overcome. Littlewood (2007) and Carless & Walker (2006) report that some secondary school English teachers in Asia often lack confidence in conducting communication activities in English because the teachers themselves feel that their own language proficiency is not sufficient to engage in communication or deal with students’ unforeseen needs. In context of ESL teacher education, Murdoch (1994) asserts that language proficiency will always represent the bedrock of ESL teacher’s professional confidence. Richards (2010) also rates that language proficiency is the most important skill among dimensions of expertise in English Language Teaching (ELT). Teaching practice refers to all parts of training course which involve planning, teaching and evaluation of actual lessons. The activities consist of lesson 248 Indonesian Journal of EFL and Linguistics, 4(2), 2019 Teaching Practice is not Enough for EFL Teachers: Voices from IAIN Surakarta observation and demonstration teaching (Wingard, 1974:46). As a set of activities, teaching practice deals with students as the object of teaching, student teacher and tutor who observes the students teacher when s/he is teaching in the classroom. The main objective of the program is to implement knowledge obtained from the lecturing processes in the real situation of teaching. The implementation of the knowledge consists of planning teaching materials, real teaching, writing test item, and evaluating overall materials that have been taught. Teaching practice as a strategy inducing teaching craft for novice teacher is now widely used as the main preparation program. Problems exist however, the results of teacher competences they have been equipped in a series of teaching professions are below the expected standard. The Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) (2015) reports that Indonesia has 32 public and 342 private teacher training institutions among 92 public universities and more than 3,000 private universities. Problems pertaining to student intake, teacher training programs, and graduate outputs prepared for teacher professions are mostly of below standard. There are not only supply imbalances relative to demand but serious deficiencies in readiness to teach effectively and help student learn. Teacher training programs in Indonesian university preparing teacher profession have been run with minimum renewal in context of ELT. The aims of teaching practice as a compulsory course are: (1) to conduct teaching learning process to secondary students based on Prepared Lesson Plan, (2) to apply knowledge revealed from the undergraduate courses, and (3) to identify and solve problems encountered in the classroom. For this purpose, three main activities should be conducted. The activities are: (1) observation, (2) teaching (planning, applying and evaluating) at least five times, and (3) participation of weekly discussion with teaching practice supervisor (UM, 2017; UNS, 2016; Pak, Boorer & Chakravarthy, 2013; IAIN Surakarta 2017). Teaching practice is set as a 4 to 6 credits course that each university divides its impl (...truncated)