56 the government or the school. Kiki revealed that she had never been taught how to
design or develop syllabus when she was at the college.
Next is about syllabus. We never studied about how to develop a syllabus
. We used to think that syllabus is already provided. Since the school is a private bilingual school with national plus curriculum, we
introduce English since the students are in the pre-school and we are free to not to follow the syllabus made by the government. Unfortunately, I did
not ever study to develop a syllabus into certain extent
. That was the thing that I never learnt before.
Interview3_K45 Hence, when she developed her syllabus, she made it based on the textbook used
in the school without any changes and adjustment. Likewise, Jalu did not really understand how to develop a syllabus. Even
though he had learnt from the last year syllabus, Jalu was still confused about to what extent he might develop it. Because of that, he did not make his own
syllabus but copied from the last year syllabus.
6. The participants’ first teaching
Besides dealing with administrative works, teaching wa s Kiki and Jalu‟s
main job. In their first teaching, both of Kiki and Jalu experienced the unexpected thing. They faced the situation in which their teaching did not run as what they
had planned. However, from the unexpected thing happened in their first teaching, they could took what so-
called “the lesson learnt”. In her first teaching, Kiki taught about “How Do I Wear” at grade 2. Kiki
taught the students about kinds of clothes and in what season we wear it. Her first teaching did not run as what she expected and then she considered her first
teaching as unsuccessful.
57 Kiki considered her first teaching as unsuccessful because the students
were not enthusiastic in and did not enjoy the lesson. In her first teaching, Kiki found that the students did not enjoy the lesson and got bored with the material
because they had already known that. At that day, I taught them about kinds of clothes. I thought the students
had not studied about it before. Thus, I taught them about kinds of clothes at the first meeting. I showed them the pictures of the clothes and told
them the name of those kinds of clothes. Surprisingly, they had already known that. According to the monthly schedule mos the students learnt
about vocabulary at that day and since they had already known about it, I taught them fast. I only reviewed it. However, the students were bored
then. They even said “I have already known that” They did not really enjoy the lesson because they have already studied it before. It made me
thought that they had already understood the material well. Thus I reviewed the material fast and then moved to the next teaching material,
but still in the same topic. I taught them grammar related to the topic.
Interview3_K53 Another reason which made Kiki considered her first teaching as
unsuccessful was the students‟ failure in doing quiz on that material. Kiki found that almost more than half of the class scored below the KKM for the monthly
test. I was
shocked with my students’ quiz results. Almost all of them got bad
score. It was unexpected because at the time when I taught them that material, they had already known that. Most of the students got less than
the KKM , some got 70, and only few got more than 70 but less than 80.
Because of that, I made quizzes for several times. But the results still the same. Even when I gave them monthly test about that material, almost
half of the class needed to take remedial test.
Interview3_K53 Knowing that her students‟ quizzes and test results were not satisfying,
Kiki shared this problem to her colleagues and the class teachers. According to her colleagues and the class teachers, Kiki‟s teaching did not achieve the learning
objectives so that the students could not achieve the learning outcomes too. They
58 suggested Kiki to teach that material one more time. However, re-teaching that
material was not possible. A tight teaching schedule made it impossible for Kiki to manage the time for re-teaching.
Different from Kiki‟s colleagues and the class teachers, parents did not realize that there was something wrong. They only knew that their children did
not perform well on the quiz and test because the only know their own child‟s score not the whole class. Though there was no complaint from the parents, Kiki
did not let this problem unsolved. Then Kiki decided to review this material during the review time before mid-semester test.
From that experience, Kiki learnt that she must make sure that the students understood the material well though they said that they had already known that.
Kiki then realized that she must not be deceived with the students‟ words that they already understood the material. When the students said that they had already
understood the lesson, their understanding was actually still superficial. Actually when the students said that they had already known the lesson,
they did not really understand it. Now I know that when they say that they already understand the lesson, it does not always true. Therefore, I
like to vary and modify my questions and exercises and then I ask it again and again to the students in order to make sure that they really understand
the lesson. Their understanding is still superficial. They only know the name of the object but they cannot relate it to other things. For example,
the students know that this kind of clothes is called jacket but they did not know in what season they could wear jacket. When almost half of the class
scored less than KKM, I realized that it was my failure as a teacher. My teaching could not achieve the learning outcomes at all. It teaches me to
always check my students‟ understanding again and again in order to make sure that they really understand the lesson.
Interview3_K53 Besides making sure that students understood the lesson well was
important, Kiki also realized that she needed to have a rich collection of teaching
59 idea to deliver the material interestingly. She mentioned that she needed a rich
collection of teaching idea in order to overcome the situation in which students were getting bored since they have already known the material before. A rich
collection of teaching idea would ease her to switch her planned teaching procedure into other procedure which still aimed to achieve the planned teaching
objectives. Then, Kiki maintained that she should not be too rigid in teaching. It meant that she should be more flexible in teaching by allowing such a deviant
teaching procedure from the lesson plan. At first, Kiki thought that her teaching should accordingly to the
procedures which she had planned in her lesson plan. When her teaching achieved its objectives through her planned procedures, then she considered her teaching as
successful. Thus, a good lesson plan was needed and must be adhered to achieve teaching objectives. In other words, Kiki used to think that sticking to a good
lesson plan was the key success of teaching. However, in her initial teaching she found that the classroom situation did
not always allow her to stick to her lesson plan. In her first teaching, Kiki found that time of teaching would affect the students‟ mood. Then the students‟ mood
would usually influence the flow of teaching. When Kiki taught in the morning class, the students were still fresh, enthusiastic, and cooperative and thus she
could apply her teaching procedures well. Contrastingly, when she taught in the afternoon class, she could not follow her planned procedure well since the
students were reluctant to learn, not cooperative, and very noisy. Thus her
60 teaching could not achieve its objectives and of course the students could not also
obtain the learning outcomes. It made her realized that she had not ever learnt about how to face the
unpredicted things happened in her class. She mentioned that she had not ever studied about how to overcome the unpredicted situation in which she could not
run her teaching accordingly to her lesson plan. But then, Kiki learnt that when her teaching did not go well accordingly to her teaching procedures in the lesson
plan, it was alright as long as her teaching could achieve its objectives. Thus she became more flexible towards her lesson plan now. She usually prepared for plan
B when her lesson plan did not work well. Besides preparing plan B, she also differentiated the lesson plan for morning and afternoon class.
… lesson plan which I made and applied at grade 2 Sparkling might different
from the one that I made and applied at grade 2 Glowing, but the
teaching objectives were the same .
Interview3_K60 Not much different from Kiki, Jalu who taught “A Day at the Zoo” for his
first teaching also experienced the same situation with Kiki in which he could not apply his lesson plan well sometimes. He found it a bit difficult to teach grade 2 in
the afternoon class. Since the students were already tired and sleepy in the afternoon, they tended to be not cooperative, reluctant to learn, and noisy. Indeed
the teaching and learning process did not run well and thus the learning objectives could not be achieved.
Similar with Kiki, facing that kind of problems in his first teaching had not ever been envisaged. It made Jalu needed to share it to other person in the school
to look for enlightenment. Jalu shared his problem to the vice- principal. Jalu‟s
61 sharing with the vice principal, who then revealed having the same experience
with Jalu when he became a submissive teacher at grade 2, resulted an understanding that the ability of manage the class well could not instantly
obtained and an overview that lesson plan was not everything. Jalu found that sticking to the teaching procedures in the lesson plan was not the important thing,
but achieving the objectives of teaching. In his first teaching, Jalu also experienced facing the fact that some
students scored badly on their quiz. Different from Kiki‟s case where her teaching
was the matter, the problem in Jalu‟s case was his quiz. Some parents whose children got bad score complained to Jalu for his pictures in the quiz were not
clear. Those parents blamed it as the impediment for their children to do the quiz. Those parents believed that their children could actually do the quiz well if the
pictures were clear since their children always get good score in English. Then, what Jalu could do at that time was only explaining to the parents that since he
was new and just replaced the previous teacher, he made the quiz based on the previous teacher‟s pattern in making quizzes. Moreover, he also told the parents
that he had already consult it to the vice-principal in order to dampen their anger. Receiving complaints from parents made Jalu re-examined his quiz. He
realized that the pictures were not clear. This experience taught Jalu to be careful in making quiz next time. He did not make similar type of quiz with the previous
teacher any longer. From this experience, Jalu knew how to make quiz which was suitable with his students and he also found his own type in making quiz. He did
not any longer following the way the previous teacher develop a quiz. In
62 developing quiz or test,
Jalu now was aware to consider his students‟ ability. Therefore, he made quiz which was feasible for all of the students but challenging.
Before I make the quiz, I have to make sure what is going to be assessed. I check the basic competence, the standard competence, and the indicators
first before making the quiz. Then, based on the basic competence, the standard competence, and the indicators, I developed quiz which is
feasible
for the students whose ability is the least, but challenging at some
points for the students whose ability is the most. Interview3_J21
7. Meeting with ‘special’ kids
