39 out of five research participants to transform their imagined professional identity
after finishing teaching practice program. Table 4.2 presents the pre-service teachers’ identity transformation after finishing teaching practice program.
Table 4.2 Pre-service T eachers’ Identity Transformation
Participants Pre-
service Teachers’ Imagined Identity in Micro Teaching
Pre-service Tea chers’ Identity
Transformation after Teaching Practice Program
P2 Learning Facilitator
Spiritual Guide P3
Spiritual Guide Learning Facilitator
P5 Learning Facilitator
Spiritual Guide
By interviewing the research participants, the data showed that there were two types of identity transformation, which were the transformation from a learning
facilitator to a spiritual guide and a spiritual guide to a learning facilitator. These transformations would be discussed in the following sections.
1. From a Learning Facilitator to a Spiritual Guide
Spiritual guide is one of the pre-service teacher’s identities that focuses on
aspect related to “guiding students’ minds, spirit, and pursuits” Xu, 2013, p. 82.
In accordance to this, pre-service teachers considered themselves as a role model in which their attitude affected the students
’ mind and behavior. In the previous study by Iswandari 2016, P2 and P5 described what kind of teachers that they wanted
to become. Through the reflective journal, P2 stated that she wanted to be students’
friend who could be close with the students and made them feel comfortable with her. In this case, she wanted to be a teacher who was friendly with the students.
40 Similarly, P5 clearly stated that she wanted to be a teacher who could create two-
way learning condition which belongs to one of the characteristics of a teacher as a learning facilitator Xu, 2013. Teaching, in her concept, was more on giving
students opportunity to undergo the process and get full assistance from the teacher. Hence, she did not consider herself as the main source of knowledge. This
characteritics is in the same line with Xu 2013 who states that a teacher as a learning facilitator includes students in educational decision making and treats
students as partners in the teaching and learning process. After finishing their teaching practice program, P2 and P5 indicated that they
experienced identity transsformation from a learning facilitator to a spiritual guide. Some characteristics which indicated P2 and P5 tend to transform their identity
from learning facilitators to spiritual guides are shown in Table 4.3.
Table 4.3 Characteristic of Spiritual Guide Mentioned by P2 and P5
Spiritual Guide Identity Characteristic
Teacher should think twice to solve problems, to give the students advice and motivation inside and outside the
class. Teacher had to give students affection and care about
them. Teacher should have good attitude and become a role
model to lead them become a good human being. Teacher
had to deal with students’ personal emotion and characteristic.
Teacher should create comfortable and safe classroom athmosphere.
Generally, P2 and P5 considered that as teachers they had to be good teachers with good attitude and could guide the students to become a good human being. Besides,
41 teacher, in their concept, should be able to create comfortable and safe atmosphere
by loving and caring them. More specifically, P2 focused more on what she should do as a teacher which
focused more on giving her students affection and motivation which was stated below
:
.... It was because I faced my real students directly, so I had to give them affection and care about them. During my PPL, I always gave my students
attention and I knew them very well. .... I think that being a teacher is not easy but I can do it by loving the students. [3.P2]
P2 considered that caring and giving her students affection were important. She emphasized that loving the students meant that she had to give all her mind to
the students. Through further question which was conducted by the researcher, P2 mentioned that she needed to really care of the students. For example, she always
made sure that the students were healthy while they were in school. Besides, she also tried to ask the students who kept silent during the class in order to make sure
that they were fine. Besides, P2 also mentioned that as a teacher she needed to motivate the
students as she described below: During my teaching practice, I also had to motivate the students so
that they could understand the material, especially the students who thought that they could not do the exercise. [8.P2]
She also tried to motivate her students personally, especially the students who considered themselves as students who could not understand the material or doing
the exercise, as well as the naughty students. She emphasized that she always gave positive reinforcement to students in order to motivate them. More specifically, this
42 reiforcement referred to smiling, praising the students, or giving complementary
comment to the students. This is in line with Mandah and Gbarato 2016 who state that positive reinforcement is the process in which the teacher encourages positive
behavior of the students to enable them achieve the specific objective. Moreover, loving and caring the students is one of the characteristics of spiritual guide Xu,
2013. Furthermore, giving motivation is also an important aspect for the students.
Essentially, it is because treating students with care and affection makes the students feel that they belong to the classroom members specially when the teachers
express involvement and warmth Furrer, Skinner, Pitzer, 2014. Besides, being friendly with the students indicated that P2 can be considered as a good teacher
since a good teacher is identified as a kind, friendly, helpful, and patient teacher Arnon Reichel, 2007. More importantly, P2, who stated that she needed to care
enough of the students who considered themselves incapable, indicated that she understood that each student learned differently. Consequently, it led her to have
the characteristic of an effective teacher since she strived to motivate and engage the students rather than simply accepting that some students could not be engaged
and are destined to do poorly Rubio, 2009. Similarly, P5 mentioned that a teacher should be able to understand the
students well and deal with each student personally as she mentioned below: My perception about what a teacher should do becomes stronger. During
the time studying in campus, I only thought that a teacher should deliver the knowledge and manage the class well. However, after finishing teaching
practice program, I think that a teacher also should be able to understand the students. For example, when the students keep silent, it does not mean
