T1 112007017 Full text
TEACHING PRACTICE STUDENTS’ PEDAGOGICAL KNOWLEDGE
DEVELOPMENT IN TEACHING ENGLISH IN A PRIVATE ENGLISH
INSTITUTION
THESIS
Submitted in Partial Fulfillment
of the Requirements for the Degree of
Sarjana Pendidikan
Hesty Herawati
112007017
ENGLISH DEPARTMENT
FACULTY OF LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE
SATYA WACANA CHRISTIAN UNIVERSITY
2013
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: Hesty Herawati
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: 112007017
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: English for Education
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: Faculty of Language and Literature
Kind of Work
: Undergraduate Thesis
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Teaching Practice Students’ Pedagogical Knowledge Development in Teaching English in a
Private English Institution
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Made in
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Date
: February 11, 2013
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Hesty Herawati
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Thesis Examiner
Victoria Usadya Palupi, M.A. ELT
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Copyright@2012. Hesty Herawati and Anne I. Timotius, M. Ed
All rights reserved. No part of this thesis may be reproduced by any means without the
permission of at least one of the copyright owners or the English Department, Faculty of
Language and Literature, Satya Wacana Christian University, Salatiga.
Hesty Herawati:
Introduction
Teaching Practice (TP) is a part of teaching learning activities for TP students in
education faculties. In TP, the TP students will have an experience in teaching real situation,
real classes, and real students. The English Department (ED) also applies TP program for its
student since TP is one of the academic requirements for the students. Nolan (2011) believes
that “the primary purpose of the student teaching experience is to provide the students with a
carefully mentored experience to help the students develop and enhance the knowledge,
skills, and dispositions necessary to positively impact student learning and development” (p.
6). In TP program, the TP students will get many experiences to develop their pedagogical
knowledge that later will be useful for their teaching outside TP program.
In professional development, as stated by Grossman and Richert (1988), it is better if
TP students have knowledge of general pedagogical knowledge and skills and knowledge of
the subject matter to be taught. The reason is that TP is a central element in an education
department. Therefore, by having TP, TP students will be able to develop their pedagogical
knowledge in order to be a good teacher. In developing the pedagogical knowledge, it is
better if the TP students have the strategies in understanding the needs of the students so that
the students can gain knowledge in understanding the subject matter. It is an opportunity for
the TP students to develop their pedagogical knowledge by having the knowledge of teaching
in their TP experience.
Teaching in an English course instead of formal schools was a rare opportunity
because TP is usually done in formal schools. This is one of the reasons why I investigated
some TP students’ pedagogical knowledge development especially for those who have done
TP in the Private English Institution. Another reason is because there is no much research in
this kind of issue therefore I conducted TP students’ pedagogical knowledge development as
a research. The last reason is because the Private English Institution has several specialties
compared to formal schools. The first specialty is materials used in the Private English
Institution. There are many courses and the Private English Institution uses their own books.
The names of the materials are the name of the class which the students can take. The classes
are Express Programs, Children Class, Conversation Class, 1 Year Intensive English
Program, TOEFL Preparation Class, and also IELTS Class. In formal schools, the TP
students may only have one kind of material which is English and they may not have
experience in teaching TOEFL or IELTS class. Besides that, the students in the Private
English Institution already have motivation to learn English so that it will be another
challenge for the TP students to develop the materials which can fill the students’ needs. The
second specialty is various ages of learners. There are very young learners, young learners,
and also adult learners. On the other hand, the TP students in formal schools will most
probably only teach one level of students, for example junior high school students or senior
high school students. Then, the last specialty is the amount of students in the Private English
Institution. In the Private English Institution, the number of the students is fewer than in
formal schools. There are private and regular classes which have small number of students
but in formal school, there can be more than 20 students in the classroom.
Therefore, from the specialties that the Private English Institution has, this study
investigated TP students’ pedagogical knowledge development which aimed to answer these
two research questions:
1. What are the challenges faced by TP students related to their pedagogical
knowledge in teaching English in the Private English Institution?
2. How do TP students develop their pedagogical knowledge in teaching English
in the Private English Institution?
Theoretical Framework
This part of the paper will discuss theories which serve as the foundation of the study.
The literature, especially related to these kinds of knowledge used in teaching and learning
theories, will be presented.
The first theory that I would like to discuss is content knowledge. According to
Shulman (1987), teachers need to master two types of knowledge: (1) content knowledge of
the subject itself, and (2) knowledge of the curricular development. However, because the
subjects of this study are TP students, this study focused more on content knowledge than
curricular development because TP students are beginner teachers. It is better if TP students
master content knowledge first than curricular development and another thing because the TP
site is in the Private English Institution.
Content knowledge is “the knowledge teachers have of the subject matter they are
teaching. It affects planning, task setting, questioning, explaining, giving feedback and
assessment” (Shulman, 1987). It is important for teachers to have content knowledge of the
subjects they teach because according to McNamara (1991), “teachers with strong content
knowledge may teach in a more interesting and dynamic way whilst those with little content
knowledge may shy away from the more difficult aspects of the subject, or approach their
teaching in a didactic manner”. This case is also showed by Ahtee and Johnston (2006), they
showed that a lack knowledge in subject knowledge can lead to teaching difficulties.
Therefore, it is important for teachers to have strong content knowledge so the students can
receive the subject matters easily. This is possibly why Hill, Rowan, and Ball (2005) said that
“many professional development activities are aimed at improving content knowledge
because evidence has shown that teacher knowledge in the subject area can strongly influence
student learning.”
In this study, TP students delivered the subject matters, in this case English. If TP
students have lack of content knowledge, they may not be able to deliver the subject matters
to the students very well and it can influence the students’ learning of the subject matters.
Therefore it is advised that TP students have strong content knowledge in order to give clear
explanation to their students.
The next theory is pedagogical knowledge. Different from content knowledge,
according to August and Hakuta (1997), pedagogical knowledge is:
any theory or belief about teaching and the process of learning that a teacher possesses that
influences that teacher's teaching. This process includes the ability to plan and prepare
materials; time and classroom management skills; implementation, problem solving, and
teaching strategies; questioning techniques; and assessment.
Shulman (1987) also has a similar definition of pedagogical knowledge. Shulman
(1987) said, “General pedagogical knowledge is the broad principles and strategies to manage
the classroom and to solve the problems which will be appear in the classroom”.
Therefore, in TP, pedagogical knowledge deals more than knowledge of the content
of teaching. This is basically the strategies, techniques, and methods in delivering the
knowledge itself. A teacher with good content knowledge may not be able to deliver the
material well without good pedagogical knowledge.
The same this applies to TP students. They also need pedagogical knowledge in
teaching their students. One way to this is by planing and preparing the materials before the
teaching learning process. Then, in the classroom, in the real teaching learning process, TP
students should have art of teachings, such as classroom management, problem solving,
questioning, teaching strategies, and assessment. If TP students have lack of pedagogical
knowledge, the teaching learning process will not be successful. As Turner-Bisset (2001) and
Schon’s (1983) suggest, in developing pedagogical knowledge, TP students have to practice
their teaching learning process. Therefore, TP students will be able to know whether they
have strong pedagogical knowledge or lack pedagogical knowledge. Also, they can develop
it.
Different from the above knowledge, pedagogical content knowledge is the
knowledge of how to teach within a particular subject area (Shulman, 1987). This knowledge
enables TP students to teach their students with clear explanations, appropriate materials, and
deliver the materials in interesting, motivating and entertaining ways. Shulman (1987) stated
that,
pedagogical content knowledge identifies the distinctive bodies of knowledge for teaching. It
represents the blending of content and pedagogy into an understanding of how particular
topics, problems or issues are organised, represented, and adapted to the diverse interests and
abilities of learners, and presented for instruction. (p.4)
In TP, especially for TP students in the Private English Institution, they have to make
AVAs, not just printed AVA but reusable AVA as their teaching aids so that they can deliver
the materials in interesting and entertaining ways. By delivering the materials in entertaining
and interesting ways can increase learners’ willingness to learn the subject matter. Besides
that, TP students have to motivate the students so that the students will have motivation in
learning the subject matters instead of thinking that English is very difficult subject, like what
some students in the Private English Institution think. These become the challenges for TP
students to motivate them to study English. Nevertheless, this can be faced if TP students
have pedagogical content knowledge. According to Shulman (1986) teacher should have
pedagogical content knowledge for successful teaching. By making AVA, planning, and
creating interesting materials, the TP students can develop their pedagogical content
knowledge. By having this knowledge, the TP students can create appropriate AVA and
motivate the students. They can also deliver the subject matter in interesting and entertaining
ways and they can help students to understand the subject matters and motivate the students
to learn things.
There is different knowledge related to teaching. However, the term pedagogical
knowledge in this study refers to all kinds of teaching knowledge.
The last theory is social learning theory. Learning theories are learning that
describes how the information received, understood, and done in teaching. In doing TP, TP
students faced many challenges in their teaching. Therefore, TP students often learn with and
from other people to develop their pedagogical knowledge. Below are some learning theories,
especially social learning theories.
a. Rotter’s Theory
The main idea in Rotter’s social learning theory (Rotter, 1954) is that it personality
represents an interaction of the individual with their environment. Also, Rotter (1954)
describes personality as a relatively stable set of potentials for responding to situations in a
particular way.
Therefore, behavior is always changeable. As stated in Rotter, (1954)
behavior can change the way the person thinks or change the environment the person is
responding to. For example, TP students can learn from their environment how to teach
particular students and particular subject matters from their environment.
b. Vygotsky’s Theory
Vygotsky (1962) stated that we learn through our interaction and communities with
others. He suggested that learning takes place through the interaction between the students
and their peers, teachers, and the others. In Vygotsky’s theory, learning always occurs and
cannot be separated from social context. Knowledge development involves student-student
and expert-student’s collaboration in real world problems or task so that it can build person’s
language, skills, and experience (Vygotsky, 1978). For example, in learning, TP students can
get guidance from experienced person in order to solve their problems in teaching.
c. Bandura’s Theory
In social learning theory, Bandura (1977) showed that behavior is learned from
environment through the process of observational learning. For example, TP students can
learn from one another through observation, imitation, and modeling.
The Study
Context of the Study
The setting of the study was in the Private English Institution. This TP site was
chosen because the Private English Institution is the only English course where ED students
can do their TP. The other sites are formal schools. Besides that, the Private English
Institution has some specialties I have mentioned earlier. An additional reason for choosing
the Private English Institution was because TP students here have different challenges when
they entered different classes and faced different kinds of students. TP students in the Private
English Institution learnt how to teach in an English Course that may technically be different
from formal schools.
Participants
The participants were 20 English Department TP students who have experienced in
doing TP in the Private English Institution. Four participants were willing to be interviewed
through email because they are out of this town. There were only 20 English Department TP
students because this study focused on TP students who have done TP in the Private English
Institution only. This study used purposive sampling or criterion based selection. The
participants were selected based on a certain criteria that were ED Students who have done
TP in the Private English Institution.
Instrument of Data Collection
In attempting to answer these research questions, the data was collected through semi
structured interview or “interview guided approach” (Patton, 1990). This study used semi
structure interview because the order of the questions can be changed depending on the
direction of the interview. Besides that, additional questions can be asked in order to get
richer data from the participants.
There were 20 TP students from the Private English Institution and each of the
interviews was scheduled to last around 20 minutes. The interview questions were divided
into two parts:
1.
The challenges faced by TP students related to their pedagogical knowledge in
teaching English in the Private English Institution, and
2.
How they developed their pedagogical knowledge.
Procedures of Data Collection
The study used of qualitative data (interview) with simple quantification. The
questions for semi structured interview were adopted from the paper in the international
seminar proceeding 2011 written by Timotius (2011). The questions involving a relatively
fixed interview schedule but also allowing and encouraging the interviewees to elaborate on
the particular issues. The participants contacted by phone or text message to make an
appointment for an interview. The interviews took 20-25 minutes on average and were
recorded and transcribed. The transcription used clear transcription because this study only
focus on the content of the interview and did not need any extra information as to the manner
in which the content is communicated. The transcription was analyzed using categorical
content (Lieblich et al, 1998) or content/thematic analysis (Riessman, 2008).
Discussion
This part of the paper will report the findings of the research. This will be separated
into two subheadings. The first one will be about the challenges faced by TP students in
teaching English in the Private English Institution. The second one will be about TP students’
pedagogical knowledge development.
A. The Challenges Faced by TP Students in Teaching English in a Private English
Institution
From the interview, it was discovered that the participants faced some the challenges
in teaching English in the Private English Institution. Below are the challenges that were
evident from the study which are divided into five groups.
Chart 1. The problems faced by TP students in teaching English in the Private
English Institution
1. Classroom Management
Eleven participants faced difficulties in classroom management. Two of the
participants said about their difficulty in handling the student, for example when the TP
students had to handle two different kinds of students, very active students and very passive
students. This is how Suci (one of the participants) said about handling active student,” The
most challenging that I had ever taught was kid classes because as I remember in that class
just found 1 student that was so active. He didn’t want to study English because he felt that
his English was good enough. When I came to teach him, he always asked me to play football
first with him and I had to defeat him. If he won the game, he won’t study with me. So in that
class, I had to think not just about the materials for him, but about the other alternatives so
that he wanted to learn with me.” Andhin (one of the participants) said about her difficulty in
handling passive student,” I have to encourage students to speak more and tell their idea in
front of the class and it is little bit difficult because sometimes the students did not speak
much in the class.” Besides handling the students, the other difficulty that related to
classroom management was about teach large number of students. One of TP students had
experience teaching large number of students. This is how she said,” “It is challenging when I
taught college students, because there are many students and I think it was hard to manage
them.” This result was similar to the study founded by Hill and Brodin (2004) where firstyear teachers feel that classroom management is the most difficult challenge.
2. Material Development
The result shows that ten out of twenty participants faced difficulties in developing
the materials. The participants had to find additional materials which were suitable with the
students’ ages and needs. As Lily said in the interview, “We have to find out the materials
which are suitable with their ages.” Also, Piuu said that,” I need to make my own materials
because I have to find the materials which are suitable with the students’ needs.” This finding
was similar to the result founded by Ferber & Nillas (2010), “When student teachers take
over full time teaching, they are faced with challenges such as developing new materials …”
3. Delivering the Materials and Preparing Teaching Activities
There were two kinds of challenges reported with the same quantity, which were nine
participants. The first challenge related to delivering the materials and related to preparing
teaching activities. Related to delivering the materials, this is what Marcellina said about her
difficulty in delivering the material. She mentioned that there were challenges on “how to be
able to teach in creative ways to students with different age and ability in English.”
(Marcellina) Also, Bogel said, “I have to teach how TOEFL understandable so it quite
challenging for me because me myself is quite hard to do it.” Related to preparing teaching
activities, TP students had to make AVA to support their teaching but when they had made
the AVA and had prepared the materials, the students did not come. Tyas mentioned, “In an
English course is not only high school students, but also adults, mothers who want to learn
English, so I have to think what games or what materials or AVA that are appropriate for the
students’ level so I have to make AVA which appropriate for them too.” This is how John
said, “The next problem was when we came and the student did not come because the
material that we have prepared will be useless. That is the problem.” In line with previous
study done by Alkhawaldeh (2011), one of the challenges of the pre-service teachers is the
preparation of lesson plans. They are lack of knowledge about preaparing lesson plans.
4. Teaching Particular Subject
Based on my research in the Private English Institution, six of the participants had
challenge in teaching particular subject. The subjects were TOEFL, IELTS, and conversation
class. Piuu mentioned, “I think conversation class is the most challenging because for almost
two hours, I had to talk to her, I had to make the students talk too so it’s about talking,
talking, and I felt so tired after that.” This is how JAK said about her challenge in teaching
TOEFL class, “It was the TOEFL class because I taught grammar. It was a little bit of a
burden because I was supposed to teach something I wasn’t very good at. If I made any
mistake then my students will be misled.”
5. Teaching Various Ages of Students and Time Management
There were two kinds of the challenges were reported with the same quantity, which
were three participants. The challenges related to teaching various ages of learners and
managing time. Related to teaching various ages of students, Tyas mentioned that, “Teaching
adult is the most difficult because we have to really think about… for example if we want to
put picture or song, we need to think… I really want to use this or is this picture appropriate
for them… because I don’t want to insult them, I don’t want to underestimate them,
something like that.” The students involved in teaching practice should be encouraged to
design their courses with the student needs. This was consistent with recent study done by
Heeralal & Bayaga (2011). The other challenge was time management. Yuna said, “In a
Private English Institution, the time is one thirty hours and sometimes the materials have
done but I still have time.”
B. How TP Students Develop Their Pedagogical Knowledge
From the interview, it was discovered that the participants develop their pedagogical
knowledge in nine ways (Table 2).
Chart 2. TP Students’ pedagogical knowledge development – Learning strategies
1. The Courses from ED
In ED, there are many courses related to TP. Based on my research, fifteen of the
participants used the strategy in teaching by learning from the courses in ED, for example TP
students learn from TEYL Class, Grammar Classes, Speaking Classes, Micro Teaching Class,
and the others courses. One of the TP students, Rara said, “I can get many strategies in TEYL
class so I can apply in my Children Class when I taught Children Class.” The other TP
student, Vita Dolce said, “I learn through the courses in college, theories on how to be a good
teacher and how to manage the class.”
2. Participating Actively in Teaching
There were thirteen participants who agreed that they participated actively in teaching
to develop their pedagogical knowledge. TP students participated actively in teaching by
preparing teaching material, making AVA, and preparing lesson plan. For example, Intan
reported, “I prepare beforehand for all classes but for IELTS class I have like special
preparation…” and Vita Dolce said, “I use the materials given and then looking for additional
materials related to the subject given. I usually searched the materials in the internet before I
teach.” Regarding the challenges that the TP students faced, Ferber & Nillas (2010) showed
that, “Preservice teacher prepared for student teaching by working on materials ahead of
time”.
3. Sharing Knowledge and Information
There were twelve participants who agreed that they developed their pedagogical
knowledge by sharing knowledge and information. Participants in this study also develop
their teaching knowledge by sharing their knowledge and information through discussion,
conversation, and also joint activities with the other TP students. By sharing knowledge and
information, TP students were able to know the characters for each student they are going to
teach. Besides that, TP students could also discuss about the problems they had in teaching
with their friends in TP. For instance, Rere reported that, “If do not know about the materials
sometimes I asked my friends what it means.” Tyas, “Our teacher often share how to be a
good teacher, how do we need to do, they often ask our problems, what are the difficulties so
that we can share about that and we can have more understanding and more knowledge.” This
was similar to Rotter’s theory (Rotter, 1954) people learn through interaction with their
environment.
4. Previous Experience
There were some TP students who have experienced teaching. They have experience
before they did teaching practice. Some of the TP students have ever taught elementary
school students, teaching in Sunday schools, teaching in private courses and also a group of
children who gather together. Consistent with Dewey’s theory of experience stated in
Schmidt (2010), “as the pre-service teachers interacted with their teaching experiences, they
created continuity among and derived their own meanings from them.” There were ten
people who use the strategy from their previous experience in TP. Dita said, “I already have
teaching experience before. I thought that teaching in the Private English Institution such a
kind of fun. I had a lot of friends and students. Those experiences help me to manage the
classroom.” “My previous experience helped me very much because I can manage my
classroom management and then I also can handle the students…” This is the way Rara said
about her previous experience which helped her in managing classroom and handling the
student especially passive students.
5. Previous Teaching
There were ten participants who developed their pedagogical knowledge by learning
from previous teaching. They stated that they developed their pedagogical knowledge by
learning from their previous teaching. In this strategy, the TP students learn from the
mistakes they made after they taught the students in TP. For example, Rara said that,
“…when I teach again I learn from my mistake from previous teaching to improve my
teaching skill.” This was similar to a study done by Ethell & McMeniman (2000) who argue
that since student teachers get more experience from classrooms whilst practicing teaching at
schools, they often experience a failure to build on learning”.
6. Guidance from the Teacher
There were also nine participants who used the teachers’ advice to teach English. TP
students got feedback from the teacher in solving their problems in teaching. Intan said, “I
also ask the teacher in the Private English Institution because they have more experience so it
is very useful.” This was similar to Vygotsky’s theory (1962) about people learn through
interaction with others especially with experienced person.
7. Observing Teachers or TP students
Five of the TP students agreed that they learnt teaching by observing their teacher in
ED or in the Private English Institution and also observing the other TP students. They saw
them teaching and used the similar strategy to teach. In line with Bandura’s theory (1977)
that people learn through observation. In this study, TP students observed other TP students
or their teacher to inspire their teaching. One of five participants, Rara stated that, “I
observed how my lecturer taught the students. If the teachers have good method, I will apply
it in my teaching.”
8. Imitating Lecturers or Friends
The next strategy that was used by TP students was imitating lecturers or friends. TP
students imitated the way the lecturers or friends did when they teach the students, for
example when the lecturers or friends taking a class or delivering the subject matters,
questioning, asking questions, and making preparation to teach. There were only two
participants, Marcellina and John, who learn by imitating lecturers or friends. Marcellina
said, “I learn by imitating what other lectures do. If they have good method in teaching I
imitate it.” Bandura (1977) also stated that people often learn through imitating others. By
imitating the lecturers or friends can really help the TP students how to be teach well.
9. Other Strategies
Two of the participants learnt through other strategies. The strategy was by building
good relationship with the students. In line with Ferber & Nillas (2010), “The biggest success
of the student teaching experience was the ability of preservice teachers to build relationships
with their students”. One particpant learnt teaching by asking the students about their feeling
and from the students’ feeling, the participant knew how to teach the students. This is how
Piuu mentioned, “I learn it from the students. I usually ask my students, how they feel, what
they want to learn in the class, how they feel about English. Everything about the students, I
focused on the students so I make the atmosphere like they want it to be. But if they are not in
the mood in learning English I would try to make them in the mood in learning English.” The
other participant, John said, “You are competent not only knowledgeable about the material,
knowledgeable about the knowledge but the way you built the relation with the students ...”
Conclusion
This research aimed to answer two research questions; (1) What are the challenges
faced by TP students related to their pedagogical knowledge in teaching English in the
Private English Institution? (2.) How do TP students develop their pedagogical knowledge in
teaching English in the Private English Institution?
For the first research question, there were seven challenges faced by participants in
teaching English in the Private English Institution. The problems were related to classroom
management, material development, delivering the materials, preparing teaching activities,
teaching various subjects, teaching various ages of learners, and time management. The
highest problem was in managing classroom. TP students had to plan and prepare the
materials before teaching learning process. In the classroom, TP students had to be able to
manage the classroom and had to have art of teachings. As stated in Shulman’s theory (1987)
by having pedagogical knowledge, TP students can manage the classroom and solve the
problems which will be appear in the classroom.
In developing pedagogical knowledge, the participants learnt through nine ways. They
learnt from the courses in ED, learnt by participating actively in teaching, learnt by sharing
knowledge and information, learnt from previous experience, learnt from previous teaching,
learnt through guidance from the teacher, learnt by observing teacher or TP students, learnt
by imitating lecturers, and learnt through other strategies. Based on my research, most of the
participants learnt from the courses in ED. They learnt from the courses that they got from
the college before they did TP. Besides that, TP students also learn through participating
actively in teaching. This is in line with Vygotsky’s (1962) theory. People learn through
interaction between the students and their peers, teachers, and the others. Also, learning from
experienced people. In line with Rotter’s (1954) theory, the participants learned from the
interaction with their environment by sharing knowledge and information. The other things
TP students did to develop their pedagogical knowledge were they learnt from their previous
experience. Consistent with Dewey’s theory of experience stated in Schmidt (2010), the
participants interacted with their teaching experiences, they learnt from their experience
before did TP. With the same quantity, which were ten participants, learnt from previous
teaching. This was similar to a study done by Ethell & McMeniman (2000) who argue that
student teachers get more experience from classrooms whilst practicing teaching at schools,
then they learnt from failure done in previous teaching. In line with Vygotsky’s theory
(1962), TP students also learned from experienced person that was through guidance from the
teacher. Besides that, TP students learnt by observing teachers or others TP students and
imitating teachers or TP students. In line with Bandura’s (1977) social learning theory,
people learn through their environment by observing and imitating one another. The last
things that TP students learnt were from the other strategies which were by building good
relationship with the learners. As stated by Ferber & Nillas (2010), “The biggest success of
the student teaching experience was the ability of preservice teachers to build relationships
with their students”.
Due to the limited time, there were only 20 participants participated in this study.
However, this study can still be developed by involving more TP students and more TP sites
to see the difference between them. Future research can also focus on TP students in
elementary schools because in some elementary schools, TP students do not only teach
English but they also teach the others subject matters, as Science and Mathematics. The
problems and the ways TP students develop their pedagogical knowledge might be more
various than this study. Then, the challenges TP students faced in the Private English
Instituiton and formal TP sites can be compared. Moreover, the data can be collected through
two kinds of data instrument that are interview and observation in order to get richer data.
Acknowledgements
I am deeply grateful to many individuals for helping me throughout the thesis process.
First, I express my thanks to my Lord, Jesus who always blesses me. My family who has
helped me through this thesis process. Without their love and support, I would not be able to
do this. To my beloved brother, Ary Rusdianto, thank you for your books and your revision
that really helped me in revising my grammar erros. To my beloved Daeyz, Trika, thank you
for accompany me long days and all the complaining and listening to my frustration.
Although you could not help me in revising my thesis, but your supports, your patience, and
your love helped me very much. To the rest of my family and all of my friends especially for
you who are in “Kos Payung 7a”, thank you for your support throughout all of this. I am so
thankful to have all of you in my life.
I want to thank to the Faculty of Language and Literature, English Department for
helping me to obtain my bachelor degree. To my supervisor, Mrs. Anne, thank you very
much for your guiding and your time. Thank you for being my partner in the 6 th International
Seminar for presenting my thesis. To my examiner, Mrs. Vic, thank you for your time and
your suggestion for my thesis. The last, I would like to express my thanks to the Private
English Institution where I could get the permission to use the name and also helped me in
finishing my thesis, thank you for all of you there.
References:
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topic. Scandinavian Journal of Education Research, 50(2), 207-219.
Alkhawaldeh, A. (2011). Pre-service training of English language teachers in Jordan:
Difficulties and solutions. European Journal of Social Sciences, 26 (1), 98-114.
August, D.,& Hakuta, K. (1997). Improving schooling for language-minority children: A
research agenda. Washington DC: National Academy Press.
Bandura, A. (1977). Social learning theory. New York: General Learning Press.
Ethell, R. & McMeniman, M. (2000). Unlocking the knowledge in action of an expert
practitioner. Journal of Teacher Education, 87.
Ferber, T., & Nillas, A. L. (2010). Through the eyes of student teachers: Successes and
challenges in field teaching experiences. National Teacher Education Journal, 3(2),
61-86.
Grossman, P. L. & Richert, A. E. (1988). Unacknowledged knowledge growth: A reexamination of the effects of teacher education. Teaching and Teacher Education,
4(1), 53 - 62.
Heeralal, P. J. and Bayaga, A. (2011). Pre-service teachers' experiences of teaching practice:
Case of South African University. Journal of Social Science, 28(2), 99-105.
Hill, G & Brodin, K.L. (2004). Physical education teachers' perceptions of the adequacy of
university coursework in preparation for teaching. Physical Education, 61.
Hill, H., Rowan, B., & Ball, D. (2005). Effects of teachers' mathematical knowledge for
teaching on student achievement. American Educational Research Journal, 42(2),
371-406.
Lieblich, A., Tuval-Mashiach, R., & Zilber, T. (1998). Narrative research: Reading, analysis
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McNamara, D. (1991). Subject knowledge and its application: Problems and possibilities for
teacher educators. Journal of Education for Teaching, 17(2).
Nolan, J. F. (2011). Student teaching handbook. Pennsylvania: Pennsylvania State University.
Patton, M. Q. (1990). Qualitative evaluation and research methods. Newburry Park, CA:
Sage.
Riessman, C. K. (2008). Narrative methods for the human sciences. Thousand Oaks, CA:
Sage Publications.
Rotter, J. B. (1954). Social learning and clinical psychology. New York: Prentice-Hall.
Schmidt, M. (2010). Learning from teaching experience: Dewey's theory and preservice
teachers' learning. Journal of Research in Music Education , 131-146.
Schon, D. (1983). The refelctive practitioner: How professionals think in action. New York:
Basic Books.
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Research, 15(3), 4 - 14.
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Educational Review, 57(1).
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about teaching. Journal of Curriculum Studies, 28, 393-396.
Timotius, A. I. (2011). Teachers' social pedagogical knowledge acquisition in a workplace: A
knowledge management perspective. The 5th international seminar: Teacher
education in era of world Englishes, (pp. 181-193). Salatiga.
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Cambridge: Harvard University Press.
Appendix A
Interview excerpt for 16 participants
Warm-up questions:
1. What is your name?
2. In what “angkatan” are you?
3. When TP was done?
General questions on the problems faced by TP students:
1. How did you feel when you started teaching in the Private English Institution?
2. How many classes did you teach?
3. What kinds of classes did you teach?
4. From those classes, which one is the most challenging for you? Why?
5. Overall, what were the challenges that you faced in teaching in the Private English
Institution?
Specific questions about how the TP students do to develop their TP:
6. How do you become knowledgeable about how to teach?
Have you ever experienced in teaching before doing TP?
How did your previous experience help you in your TP?
What are the knowledge you gained in ED related to TP?
7. How do you become knowledgeable about the content of the subjects you teach?
What do you think about the materials in the Private English Institution
Did you master all the materials given? Which one and why?
How did you do to develop the materials given?
What are the knowledge you gained in ED related to the content of the subject
you teach?
8. How much do you learn things related to teaching in TP?
Teaching skill (e.g. classroom management, questioning techniques, etc.)
Teaching content (e.g. theories, understanding of the subject matter)
Other teaching related to matters (e.g. material development, how to handle
students)
9. What are the strategies you use to learn things related to teaching in TP?
10. Do you have any information you want to add related to TP in the Private English
Institution?
Appendix B
Interview excerpt for 4 participants through email
1. What is your name (pseudonym nama samaran)?
2. In what “angkatan” are you?
3. When TP was done?
4. How did you feel when you started teaching in the Private English Institution?
5. How many classes did you teach?
6. What kinds of classes did you teach?
7. From those classes, which one is the most challenging for you? Why?
8. Overall, what were the challenges that you faced in teaching in the Private English
Institution?
9. How do you become knowledgeable about how to teach?
10. Have you ever experienced in teaching before doing TP?
11. How did your previous experience help you in your TP? (If you don’t have experience
before doing teaching practice, what are the things which help you in teaching
practice?)
12. What are the knowledge you gained in ED related to TP?
13. How do you become knowledgeable about the content of the subjects you teach?
14. What do you think about the materials in the Private English Institution?
15. Did you master all the materials given? Which one and why?
16. How did you do to develop the materials given?
17. What are the knowledge you gained in ED related to the content of the subject you
teach?
18. How do you learn:
Teaching skill (e.g. classroom management, questioning techniques, etc.)
Teaching content (e.g. theories, understanding of the subject matter)
Other teaching related to matters (e.g. material development, how to handle
students)
19. What are the strategies you use to learn things related to teaching in TP?
20. Do you have any information you want to add related to TP in the Private English
Institution?
Appendix C
Transcription for John:
Hesty
: Good afternoon, thank you for coming. Today, I want several questions
about teaching practice in the Private English Institution. First of all, I want to
know your name…
John
: Ok, my name is John.
Hesty
: In what angkatan are you?
John
: I am 2007er
Hesty
: Ok. So, I think you have done your teaching practice, right?
John
: Yes.
Hesty
: So, when it was done?
John
: My teaching practice was done in 2010.
Hesty
: 2010. When you started teaching in the Private English Institution, how did
you feel?
John
: When I started teaching in the Private English Institution, I think it was the
first experience for me for teaching and it was to be very complicated.
Hesty
: Why it was complicated?
John
: Because I have no any background knowledge about teaching at all.
Hesty
: So, in the Private English Institution, how many classes did you teach?
John
: I taught maybe five or six times.
Hesty
: What are they?
John
: Do you mean I have to mention them?
Hesty
: Yes.
John
: Ok, so EP 1, EP 2, and Conversation Class, and after that TOEFL class, and I
also taught some students from health, AKBID, and beside that I think I taught
Children Class.
Hesty
: So, from those classes, which one is the most challenging for you?
John
: For me, I think Children Class is not challenging for me, maybe other friends
found Children Class is the most challenging but for me it was not challenging
because I enjoy teaching Children Class. I still remember up to now. Aldo is
very close to me so that I think I have no problems in teaching Children Class.
The most challenging is when I taught… what is that… not conversation
also… TOEFL class.
Hesty
: TOEFL class. Why?
John
: For me myself, at that time, I hate listening. I don’t know why but I hate it.
At that time, I taught TOEFL especially for listening.
Hesty
: When you hate listening for TOEFL, what are your strategies to deal with
listening in TOEFL class?
John
: My strategy at that time before the class started, I came earlier and I prepared
everything and at that time I had to try listening from the recording.
Fortunately, I already passed listening 1 up to listening 4, listening is already
trained so that it was not something new for us. Yeah… I prepared myself
before teaching.
Hesty
: Ok. Overall, what are the challenges you faced in teaching in the Private
English Institution?
John
: The most challenging? Do you mean all of the challenge?
Hesty
: Yes. All the challenges.
John
: Ok, I think about the time management also.
Hesty
: Why? Can you explain about the time management?
John
Hesty
John
Hesty
John
Hesty
John
Hesty
John
Hesty
John
Hesty
John
Hesty
John
Hesty
John
Hesty
John
Hesty
John
Hesty
: The problems at that time when I was taking 15 credits belong to finishing
my thesis. So, the problem was when I was learning in the class and suddenly
I have got the information and I have to teach, for example. I think this is the
problem for me about the time management but I enjoyed it.
: Do you mean the time management from you outside the teaching practice?
: Time management in here not only for me but also my friends because
maybe at that time we did not give our schedule of study in English
Department so it will be any adjustment between teaching practice here and
our learning. This is the first problem. The next problem was when we came
and the student did not come. That is the problem.
: Ok, so the problem is from the student itself?
: Yes, from the student itself. And then for those who haven’t had any English
background knowledge, I mean they haven’t, let say… they only come to take
English in that course. The thing that what they should do is knowing how to
speak in English but we don’t notice that they have to learn from the very
basic one, it means maybe they have to learn about English alphabet, their
interpretation in their mind is coming to be able to speak English and that is
the problem for teacher in teaching.
: So, what are your strategies for that?
: For my strategy, sometimes I just give advice.
: Ok, you gave advice for the students.
: Yes, I gave advice for the students that, “you could follow the course but
remember you have to find other way to improve your English so yeah to
make the progress to learn English."
: Any others?
: Another problem, for me myself.
: Ok, what is it?
: Actually, I don’t have any background knowledge in teaching.
: So, when you don’t have any background knowledge of teaching, how do
you learn teaching?
: Teaching Practicum in the Private English Institution became my first
experience in teaching and it becomes my teacher in teaching. That’s why I
learnt so much how to teach, how to face students. So, for strategy, I have so
many strategies I just learnt how to imitate our teachers when they were
teaching. How, when you become a teacher and you spent in front of your
students, what should you do? So, I learnt about it.
: So, you imitate from your teacher.
: Mostly, I imitate the teachers’ way of teaching when they were teaching at
that time.
: Any others? Or that’s all for the challenges?
: About the challenges, ehmm… but this is not the challenges but this is my
way to study. I think at that time, the first challenge for me is how to arrange
the lesson plan because arranging lesson plan in the Private English
Institution, you already know, it should be very detail but I think this is not the
problem. Maybe the problem comes from myself, not the problem from the
lesson plan itself, how to arrange it but it comes from myself.
: How about the material development?
: Material development in…?
: In making lesson plan, do you have the difficulties or not?
John
Hesty
John
Hesty
John
Hesty
John
Hesty
John
Hesty
John
Hesty
John
Hesty
John
Hesty
John
Hesty
John
: I think in making lesson plan, my guru pamong at that time taught us many
things. Gave the strategies in arranging good lesson plan and we follow that.
And you know, finally I got the good score for that.
: So, how do you become knowledgeable about how to teach?
: Become knowledgeable, do you mean that I after teaching or …?
: Before and after teaching.
: Before teaching, I didn’t have any experience in teaching so that it was very
difficult for me and when I taught the students, sometimes I thought, can I do
that? What should I do? And you know sometimes like I feel I was in
somethin
DEVELOPMENT IN TEACHING ENGLISH IN A PRIVATE ENGLISH
INSTITUTION
THESIS
Submitted in Partial Fulfillment
of the Requirements for the Degree of
Sarjana Pendidikan
Hesty Herawati
112007017
ENGLISH DEPARTMENT
FACULTY OF LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE
SATYA WACANA CHRISTIAN UNIVERSITY
2013
PUBLICATION AGREEMENT DECLARATION
As a member of the (SWCU) Satya Wacana Christian University academic
community, I verify that:
Name
: Hesty Herawati
Student ID Number
: 112007017
Study Program
: English for Education
Faculty
: Faculty of Language and Literature
Kind of Work
: Undergraduate Thesis
In developing my knowledge, I agree to provide SWCU with non-exclusive royalty free right
for my intellectual property and the contents there in entitled:
Teaching Practice Students’ Pedagogical Knowledge Development in Teaching English in a
Private English Institution
along with any pertinent equipment.
With this non-exclusive royalty free right, SWCU maintains the right to copy, reproduce,
print, publish, post, display, incorporate, store in or scan into a retrieval system or database,
transmit, broadcast, barter or sell my intellectual property, in whole or in part without my
express written permission, as long as my name is still included as the writer.
This declaration is made according to the best of my knowledge.
Made in
: Salatiga
Date
: February 11, 2013
Verified by signee.
Hesty Herawati
Approved by
Thesis Supervisor
Anne I. Timotius, M. Ed
Thesis Examiner
Victoria Usadya Palupi, M.A. ELT
COPYRIGHT STATEMENT
This thesis contains no such material as has been submitted for examination in any course or
accepted for the fulfillment of any degree or diploma in any university. To the best of my
knowledge and my belief, this contains no material previously published or written by any
other person except where due to reference is made in the text.
Copyright@2012. Hesty Herawati and Anne I. Timotius, M. Ed
All rights reserved. No part of this thesis may be reproduced by any means without the
permission of at least one of the copyright owners or the English Department, Faculty of
Language and Literature, Satya Wacana Christian University, Salatiga.
Hesty Herawati:
Introduction
Teaching Practice (TP) is a part of teaching learning activities for TP students in
education faculties. In TP, the TP students will have an experience in teaching real situation,
real classes, and real students. The English Department (ED) also applies TP program for its
student since TP is one of the academic requirements for the students. Nolan (2011) believes
that “the primary purpose of the student teaching experience is to provide the students with a
carefully mentored experience to help the students develop and enhance the knowledge,
skills, and dispositions necessary to positively impact student learning and development” (p.
6). In TP program, the TP students will get many experiences to develop their pedagogical
knowledge that later will be useful for their teaching outside TP program.
In professional development, as stated by Grossman and Richert (1988), it is better if
TP students have knowledge of general pedagogical knowledge and skills and knowledge of
the subject matter to be taught. The reason is that TP is a central element in an education
department. Therefore, by having TP, TP students will be able to develop their pedagogical
knowledge in order to be a good teacher. In developing the pedagogical knowledge, it is
better if the TP students have the strategies in understanding the needs of the students so that
the students can gain knowledge in understanding the subject matter. It is an opportunity for
the TP students to develop their pedagogical knowledge by having the knowledge of teaching
in their TP experience.
Teaching in an English course instead of formal schools was a rare opportunity
because TP is usually done in formal schools. This is one of the reasons why I investigated
some TP students’ pedagogical knowledge development especially for those who have done
TP in the Private English Institution. Another reason is because there is no much research in
this kind of issue therefore I conducted TP students’ pedagogical knowledge development as
a research. The last reason is because the Private English Institution has several specialties
compared to formal schools. The first specialty is materials used in the Private English
Institution. There are many courses and the Private English Institution uses their own books.
The names of the materials are the name of the class which the students can take. The classes
are Express Programs, Children Class, Conversation Class, 1 Year Intensive English
Program, TOEFL Preparation Class, and also IELTS Class. In formal schools, the TP
students may only have one kind of material which is English and they may not have
experience in teaching TOEFL or IELTS class. Besides that, the students in the Private
English Institution already have motivation to learn English so that it will be another
challenge for the TP students to develop the materials which can fill the students’ needs. The
second specialty is various ages of learners. There are very young learners, young learners,
and also adult learners. On the other hand, the TP students in formal schools will most
probably only teach one level of students, for example junior high school students or senior
high school students. Then, the last specialty is the amount of students in the Private English
Institution. In the Private English Institution, the number of the students is fewer than in
formal schools. There are private and regular classes which have small number of students
but in formal school, there can be more than 20 students in the classroom.
Therefore, from the specialties that the Private English Institution has, this study
investigated TP students’ pedagogical knowledge development which aimed to answer these
two research questions:
1. What are the challenges faced by TP students related to their pedagogical
knowledge in teaching English in the Private English Institution?
2. How do TP students develop their pedagogical knowledge in teaching English
in the Private English Institution?
Theoretical Framework
This part of the paper will discuss theories which serve as the foundation of the study.
The literature, especially related to these kinds of knowledge used in teaching and learning
theories, will be presented.
The first theory that I would like to discuss is content knowledge. According to
Shulman (1987), teachers need to master two types of knowledge: (1) content knowledge of
the subject itself, and (2) knowledge of the curricular development. However, because the
subjects of this study are TP students, this study focused more on content knowledge than
curricular development because TP students are beginner teachers. It is better if TP students
master content knowledge first than curricular development and another thing because the TP
site is in the Private English Institution.
Content knowledge is “the knowledge teachers have of the subject matter they are
teaching. It affects planning, task setting, questioning, explaining, giving feedback and
assessment” (Shulman, 1987). It is important for teachers to have content knowledge of the
subjects they teach because according to McNamara (1991), “teachers with strong content
knowledge may teach in a more interesting and dynamic way whilst those with little content
knowledge may shy away from the more difficult aspects of the subject, or approach their
teaching in a didactic manner”. This case is also showed by Ahtee and Johnston (2006), they
showed that a lack knowledge in subject knowledge can lead to teaching difficulties.
Therefore, it is important for teachers to have strong content knowledge so the students can
receive the subject matters easily. This is possibly why Hill, Rowan, and Ball (2005) said that
“many professional development activities are aimed at improving content knowledge
because evidence has shown that teacher knowledge in the subject area can strongly influence
student learning.”
In this study, TP students delivered the subject matters, in this case English. If TP
students have lack of content knowledge, they may not be able to deliver the subject matters
to the students very well and it can influence the students’ learning of the subject matters.
Therefore it is advised that TP students have strong content knowledge in order to give clear
explanation to their students.
The next theory is pedagogical knowledge. Different from content knowledge,
according to August and Hakuta (1997), pedagogical knowledge is:
any theory or belief about teaching and the process of learning that a teacher possesses that
influences that teacher's teaching. This process includes the ability to plan and prepare
materials; time and classroom management skills; implementation, problem solving, and
teaching strategies; questioning techniques; and assessment.
Shulman (1987) also has a similar definition of pedagogical knowledge. Shulman
(1987) said, “General pedagogical knowledge is the broad principles and strategies to manage
the classroom and to solve the problems which will be appear in the classroom”.
Therefore, in TP, pedagogical knowledge deals more than knowledge of the content
of teaching. This is basically the strategies, techniques, and methods in delivering the
knowledge itself. A teacher with good content knowledge may not be able to deliver the
material well without good pedagogical knowledge.
The same this applies to TP students. They also need pedagogical knowledge in
teaching their students. One way to this is by planing and preparing the materials before the
teaching learning process. Then, in the classroom, in the real teaching learning process, TP
students should have art of teachings, such as classroom management, problem solving,
questioning, teaching strategies, and assessment. If TP students have lack of pedagogical
knowledge, the teaching learning process will not be successful. As Turner-Bisset (2001) and
Schon’s (1983) suggest, in developing pedagogical knowledge, TP students have to practice
their teaching learning process. Therefore, TP students will be able to know whether they
have strong pedagogical knowledge or lack pedagogical knowledge. Also, they can develop
it.
Different from the above knowledge, pedagogical content knowledge is the
knowledge of how to teach within a particular subject area (Shulman, 1987). This knowledge
enables TP students to teach their students with clear explanations, appropriate materials, and
deliver the materials in interesting, motivating and entertaining ways. Shulman (1987) stated
that,
pedagogical content knowledge identifies the distinctive bodies of knowledge for teaching. It
represents the blending of content and pedagogy into an understanding of how particular
topics, problems or issues are organised, represented, and adapted to the diverse interests and
abilities of learners, and presented for instruction. (p.4)
In TP, especially for TP students in the Private English Institution, they have to make
AVAs, not just printed AVA but reusable AVA as their teaching aids so that they can deliver
the materials in interesting and entertaining ways. By delivering the materials in entertaining
and interesting ways can increase learners’ willingness to learn the subject matter. Besides
that, TP students have to motivate the students so that the students will have motivation in
learning the subject matters instead of thinking that English is very difficult subject, like what
some students in the Private English Institution think. These become the challenges for TP
students to motivate them to study English. Nevertheless, this can be faced if TP students
have pedagogical content knowledge. According to Shulman (1986) teacher should have
pedagogical content knowledge for successful teaching. By making AVA, planning, and
creating interesting materials, the TP students can develop their pedagogical content
knowledge. By having this knowledge, the TP students can create appropriate AVA and
motivate the students. They can also deliver the subject matter in interesting and entertaining
ways and they can help students to understand the subject matters and motivate the students
to learn things.
There is different knowledge related to teaching. However, the term pedagogical
knowledge in this study refers to all kinds of teaching knowledge.
The last theory is social learning theory. Learning theories are learning that
describes how the information received, understood, and done in teaching. In doing TP, TP
students faced many challenges in their teaching. Therefore, TP students often learn with and
from other people to develop their pedagogical knowledge. Below are some learning theories,
especially social learning theories.
a. Rotter’s Theory
The main idea in Rotter’s social learning theory (Rotter, 1954) is that it personality
represents an interaction of the individual with their environment. Also, Rotter (1954)
describes personality as a relatively stable set of potentials for responding to situations in a
particular way.
Therefore, behavior is always changeable. As stated in Rotter, (1954)
behavior can change the way the person thinks or change the environment the person is
responding to. For example, TP students can learn from their environment how to teach
particular students and particular subject matters from their environment.
b. Vygotsky’s Theory
Vygotsky (1962) stated that we learn through our interaction and communities with
others. He suggested that learning takes place through the interaction between the students
and their peers, teachers, and the others. In Vygotsky’s theory, learning always occurs and
cannot be separated from social context. Knowledge development involves student-student
and expert-student’s collaboration in real world problems or task so that it can build person’s
language, skills, and experience (Vygotsky, 1978). For example, in learning, TP students can
get guidance from experienced person in order to solve their problems in teaching.
c. Bandura’s Theory
In social learning theory, Bandura (1977) showed that behavior is learned from
environment through the process of observational learning. For example, TP students can
learn from one another through observation, imitation, and modeling.
The Study
Context of the Study
The setting of the study was in the Private English Institution. This TP site was
chosen because the Private English Institution is the only English course where ED students
can do their TP. The other sites are formal schools. Besides that, the Private English
Institution has some specialties I have mentioned earlier. An additional reason for choosing
the Private English Institution was because TP students here have different challenges when
they entered different classes and faced different kinds of students. TP students in the Private
English Institution learnt how to teach in an English Course that may technically be different
from formal schools.
Participants
The participants were 20 English Department TP students who have experienced in
doing TP in the Private English Institution. Four participants were willing to be interviewed
through email because they are out of this town. There were only 20 English Department TP
students because this study focused on TP students who have done TP in the Private English
Institution only. This study used purposive sampling or criterion based selection. The
participants were selected based on a certain criteria that were ED Students who have done
TP in the Private English Institution.
Instrument of Data Collection
In attempting to answer these research questions, the data was collected through semi
structured interview or “interview guided approach” (Patton, 1990). This study used semi
structure interview because the order of the questions can be changed depending on the
direction of the interview. Besides that, additional questions can be asked in order to get
richer data from the participants.
There were 20 TP students from the Private English Institution and each of the
interviews was scheduled to last around 20 minutes. The interview questions were divided
into two parts:
1.
The challenges faced by TP students related to their pedagogical knowledge in
teaching English in the Private English Institution, and
2.
How they developed their pedagogical knowledge.
Procedures of Data Collection
The study used of qualitative data (interview) with simple quantification. The
questions for semi structured interview were adopted from the paper in the international
seminar proceeding 2011 written by Timotius (2011). The questions involving a relatively
fixed interview schedule but also allowing and encouraging the interviewees to elaborate on
the particular issues. The participants contacted by phone or text message to make an
appointment for an interview. The interviews took 20-25 minutes on average and were
recorded and transcribed. The transcription used clear transcription because this study only
focus on the content of the interview and did not need any extra information as to the manner
in which the content is communicated. The transcription was analyzed using categorical
content (Lieblich et al, 1998) or content/thematic analysis (Riessman, 2008).
Discussion
This part of the paper will report the findings of the research. This will be separated
into two subheadings. The first one will be about the challenges faced by TP students in
teaching English in the Private English Institution. The second one will be about TP students’
pedagogical knowledge development.
A. The Challenges Faced by TP Students in Teaching English in a Private English
Institution
From the interview, it was discovered that the participants faced some the challenges
in teaching English in the Private English Institution. Below are the challenges that were
evident from the study which are divided into five groups.
Chart 1. The problems faced by TP students in teaching English in the Private
English Institution
1. Classroom Management
Eleven participants faced difficulties in classroom management. Two of the
participants said about their difficulty in handling the student, for example when the TP
students had to handle two different kinds of students, very active students and very passive
students. This is how Suci (one of the participants) said about handling active student,” The
most challenging that I had ever taught was kid classes because as I remember in that class
just found 1 student that was so active. He didn’t want to study English because he felt that
his English was good enough. When I came to teach him, he always asked me to play football
first with him and I had to defeat him. If he won the game, he won’t study with me. So in that
class, I had to think not just about the materials for him, but about the other alternatives so
that he wanted to learn with me.” Andhin (one of the participants) said about her difficulty in
handling passive student,” I have to encourage students to speak more and tell their idea in
front of the class and it is little bit difficult because sometimes the students did not speak
much in the class.” Besides handling the students, the other difficulty that related to
classroom management was about teach large number of students. One of TP students had
experience teaching large number of students. This is how she said,” “It is challenging when I
taught college students, because there are many students and I think it was hard to manage
them.” This result was similar to the study founded by Hill and Brodin (2004) where firstyear teachers feel that classroom management is the most difficult challenge.
2. Material Development
The result shows that ten out of twenty participants faced difficulties in developing
the materials. The participants had to find additional materials which were suitable with the
students’ ages and needs. As Lily said in the interview, “We have to find out the materials
which are suitable with their ages.” Also, Piuu said that,” I need to make my own materials
because I have to find the materials which are suitable with the students’ needs.” This finding
was similar to the result founded by Ferber & Nillas (2010), “When student teachers take
over full time teaching, they are faced with challenges such as developing new materials …”
3. Delivering the Materials and Preparing Teaching Activities
There were two kinds of challenges reported with the same quantity, which were nine
participants. The first challenge related to delivering the materials and related to preparing
teaching activities. Related to delivering the materials, this is what Marcellina said about her
difficulty in delivering the material. She mentioned that there were challenges on “how to be
able to teach in creative ways to students with different age and ability in English.”
(Marcellina) Also, Bogel said, “I have to teach how TOEFL understandable so it quite
challenging for me because me myself is quite hard to do it.” Related to preparing teaching
activities, TP students had to make AVA to support their teaching but when they had made
the AVA and had prepared the materials, the students did not come. Tyas mentioned, “In an
English course is not only high school students, but also adults, mothers who want to learn
English, so I have to think what games or what materials or AVA that are appropriate for the
students’ level so I have to make AVA which appropriate for them too.” This is how John
said, “The next problem was when we came and the student did not come because the
material that we have prepared will be useless. That is the problem.” In line with previous
study done by Alkhawaldeh (2011), one of the challenges of the pre-service teachers is the
preparation of lesson plans. They are lack of knowledge about preaparing lesson plans.
4. Teaching Particular Subject
Based on my research in the Private English Institution, six of the participants had
challenge in teaching particular subject. The subjects were TOEFL, IELTS, and conversation
class. Piuu mentioned, “I think conversation class is the most challenging because for almost
two hours, I had to talk to her, I had to make the students talk too so it’s about talking,
talking, and I felt so tired after that.” This is how JAK said about her challenge in teaching
TOEFL class, “It was the TOEFL class because I taught grammar. It was a little bit of a
burden because I was supposed to teach something I wasn’t very good at. If I made any
mistake then my students will be misled.”
5. Teaching Various Ages of Students and Time Management
There were two kinds of the challenges were reported with the same quantity, which
were three participants. The challenges related to teaching various ages of learners and
managing time. Related to teaching various ages of students, Tyas mentioned that, “Teaching
adult is the most difficult because we have to really think about… for example if we want to
put picture or song, we need to think… I really want to use this or is this picture appropriate
for them… because I don’t want to insult them, I don’t want to underestimate them,
something like that.” The students involved in teaching practice should be encouraged to
design their courses with the student needs. This was consistent with recent study done by
Heeralal & Bayaga (2011). The other challenge was time management. Yuna said, “In a
Private English Institution, the time is one thirty hours and sometimes the materials have
done but I still have time.”
B. How TP Students Develop Their Pedagogical Knowledge
From the interview, it was discovered that the participants develop their pedagogical
knowledge in nine ways (Table 2).
Chart 2. TP Students’ pedagogical knowledge development – Learning strategies
1. The Courses from ED
In ED, there are many courses related to TP. Based on my research, fifteen of the
participants used the strategy in teaching by learning from the courses in ED, for example TP
students learn from TEYL Class, Grammar Classes, Speaking Classes, Micro Teaching Class,
and the others courses. One of the TP students, Rara said, “I can get many strategies in TEYL
class so I can apply in my Children Class when I taught Children Class.” The other TP
student, Vita Dolce said, “I learn through the courses in college, theories on how to be a good
teacher and how to manage the class.”
2. Participating Actively in Teaching
There were thirteen participants who agreed that they participated actively in teaching
to develop their pedagogical knowledge. TP students participated actively in teaching by
preparing teaching material, making AVA, and preparing lesson plan. For example, Intan
reported, “I prepare beforehand for all classes but for IELTS class I have like special
preparation…” and Vita Dolce said, “I use the materials given and then looking for additional
materials related to the subject given. I usually searched the materials in the internet before I
teach.” Regarding the challenges that the TP students faced, Ferber & Nillas (2010) showed
that, “Preservice teacher prepared for student teaching by working on materials ahead of
time”.
3. Sharing Knowledge and Information
There were twelve participants who agreed that they developed their pedagogical
knowledge by sharing knowledge and information. Participants in this study also develop
their teaching knowledge by sharing their knowledge and information through discussion,
conversation, and also joint activities with the other TP students. By sharing knowledge and
information, TP students were able to know the characters for each student they are going to
teach. Besides that, TP students could also discuss about the problems they had in teaching
with their friends in TP. For instance, Rere reported that, “If do not know about the materials
sometimes I asked my friends what it means.” Tyas, “Our teacher often share how to be a
good teacher, how do we need to do, they often ask our problems, what are the difficulties so
that we can share about that and we can have more understanding and more knowledge.” This
was similar to Rotter’s theory (Rotter, 1954) people learn through interaction with their
environment.
4. Previous Experience
There were some TP students who have experienced teaching. They have experience
before they did teaching practice. Some of the TP students have ever taught elementary
school students, teaching in Sunday schools, teaching in private courses and also a group of
children who gather together. Consistent with Dewey’s theory of experience stated in
Schmidt (2010), “as the pre-service teachers interacted with their teaching experiences, they
created continuity among and derived their own meanings from them.” There were ten
people who use the strategy from their previous experience in TP. Dita said, “I already have
teaching experience before. I thought that teaching in the Private English Institution such a
kind of fun. I had a lot of friends and students. Those experiences help me to manage the
classroom.” “My previous experience helped me very much because I can manage my
classroom management and then I also can handle the students…” This is the way Rara said
about her previous experience which helped her in managing classroom and handling the
student especially passive students.
5. Previous Teaching
There were ten participants who developed their pedagogical knowledge by learning
from previous teaching. They stated that they developed their pedagogical knowledge by
learning from their previous teaching. In this strategy, the TP students learn from the
mistakes they made after they taught the students in TP. For example, Rara said that,
“…when I teach again I learn from my mistake from previous teaching to improve my
teaching skill.” This was similar to a study done by Ethell & McMeniman (2000) who argue
that since student teachers get more experience from classrooms whilst practicing teaching at
schools, they often experience a failure to build on learning”.
6. Guidance from the Teacher
There were also nine participants who used the teachers’ advice to teach English. TP
students got feedback from the teacher in solving their problems in teaching. Intan said, “I
also ask the teacher in the Private English Institution because they have more experience so it
is very useful.” This was similar to Vygotsky’s theory (1962) about people learn through
interaction with others especially with experienced person.
7. Observing Teachers or TP students
Five of the TP students agreed that they learnt teaching by observing their teacher in
ED or in the Private English Institution and also observing the other TP students. They saw
them teaching and used the similar strategy to teach. In line with Bandura’s theory (1977)
that people learn through observation. In this study, TP students observed other TP students
or their teacher to inspire their teaching. One of five participants, Rara stated that, “I
observed how my lecturer taught the students. If the teachers have good method, I will apply
it in my teaching.”
8. Imitating Lecturers or Friends
The next strategy that was used by TP students was imitating lecturers or friends. TP
students imitated the way the lecturers or friends did when they teach the students, for
example when the lecturers or friends taking a class or delivering the subject matters,
questioning, asking questions, and making preparation to teach. There were only two
participants, Marcellina and John, who learn by imitating lecturers or friends. Marcellina
said, “I learn by imitating what other lectures do. If they have good method in teaching I
imitate it.” Bandura (1977) also stated that people often learn through imitating others. By
imitating the lecturers or friends can really help the TP students how to be teach well.
9. Other Strategies
Two of the participants learnt through other strategies. The strategy was by building
good relationship with the students. In line with Ferber & Nillas (2010), “The biggest success
of the student teaching experience was the ability of preservice teachers to build relationships
with their students”. One particpant learnt teaching by asking the students about their feeling
and from the students’ feeling, the participant knew how to teach the students. This is how
Piuu mentioned, “I learn it from the students. I usually ask my students, how they feel, what
they want to learn in the class, how they feel about English. Everything about the students, I
focused on the students so I make the atmosphere like they want it to be. But if they are not in
the mood in learning English I would try to make them in the mood in learning English.” The
other participant, John said, “You are competent not only knowledgeable about the material,
knowledgeable about the knowledge but the way you built the relation with the students ...”
Conclusion
This research aimed to answer two research questions; (1) What are the challenges
faced by TP students related to their pedagogical knowledge in teaching English in the
Private English Institution? (2.) How do TP students develop their pedagogical knowledge in
teaching English in the Private English Institution?
For the first research question, there were seven challenges faced by participants in
teaching English in the Private English Institution. The problems were related to classroom
management, material development, delivering the materials, preparing teaching activities,
teaching various subjects, teaching various ages of learners, and time management. The
highest problem was in managing classroom. TP students had to plan and prepare the
materials before teaching learning process. In the classroom, TP students had to be able to
manage the classroom and had to have art of teachings. As stated in Shulman’s theory (1987)
by having pedagogical knowledge, TP students can manage the classroom and solve the
problems which will be appear in the classroom.
In developing pedagogical knowledge, the participants learnt through nine ways. They
learnt from the courses in ED, learnt by participating actively in teaching, learnt by sharing
knowledge and information, learnt from previous experience, learnt from previous teaching,
learnt through guidance from the teacher, learnt by observing teacher or TP students, learnt
by imitating lecturers, and learnt through other strategies. Based on my research, most of the
participants learnt from the courses in ED. They learnt from the courses that they got from
the college before they did TP. Besides that, TP students also learn through participating
actively in teaching. This is in line with Vygotsky’s (1962) theory. People learn through
interaction between the students and their peers, teachers, and the others. Also, learning from
experienced people. In line with Rotter’s (1954) theory, the participants learned from the
interaction with their environment by sharing knowledge and information. The other things
TP students did to develop their pedagogical knowledge were they learnt from their previous
experience. Consistent with Dewey’s theory of experience stated in Schmidt (2010), the
participants interacted with their teaching experiences, they learnt from their experience
before did TP. With the same quantity, which were ten participants, learnt from previous
teaching. This was similar to a study done by Ethell & McMeniman (2000) who argue that
student teachers get more experience from classrooms whilst practicing teaching at schools,
then they learnt from failure done in previous teaching. In line with Vygotsky’s theory
(1962), TP students also learned from experienced person that was through guidance from the
teacher. Besides that, TP students learnt by observing teachers or others TP students and
imitating teachers or TP students. In line with Bandura’s (1977) social learning theory,
people learn through their environment by observing and imitating one another. The last
things that TP students learnt were from the other strategies which were by building good
relationship with the learners. As stated by Ferber & Nillas (2010), “The biggest success of
the student teaching experience was the ability of preservice teachers to build relationships
with their students”.
Due to the limited time, there were only 20 participants participated in this study.
However, this study can still be developed by involving more TP students and more TP sites
to see the difference between them. Future research can also focus on TP students in
elementary schools because in some elementary schools, TP students do not only teach
English but they also teach the others subject matters, as Science and Mathematics. The
problems and the ways TP students develop their pedagogical knowledge might be more
various than this study. Then, the challenges TP students faced in the Private English
Instituiton and formal TP sites can be compared. Moreover, the data can be collected through
two kinds of data instrument that are interview and observation in order to get richer data.
Acknowledgements
I am deeply grateful to many individuals for helping me throughout the thesis process.
First, I express my thanks to my Lord, Jesus who always blesses me. My family who has
helped me through this thesis process. Without their love and support, I would not be able to
do this. To my beloved brother, Ary Rusdianto, thank you for your books and your revision
that really helped me in revising my grammar erros. To my beloved Daeyz, Trika, thank you
for accompany me long days and all the complaining and listening to my frustration.
Although you could not help me in revising my thesis, but your supports, your patience, and
your love helped me very much. To the rest of my family and all of my friends especially for
you who are in “Kos Payung 7a”, thank you for your support throughout all of this. I am so
thankful to have all of you in my life.
I want to thank to the Faculty of Language and Literature, English Department for
helping me to obtain my bachelor degree. To my supervisor, Mrs. Anne, thank you very
much for your guiding and your time. Thank you for being my partner in the 6 th International
Seminar for presenting my thesis. To my examiner, Mrs. Vic, thank you for your time and
your suggestion for my thesis. The last, I would like to express my thanks to the Private
English Institution where I could get the permission to use the name and also helped me in
finishing my thesis, thank you for all of you there.
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Appendix A
Interview excerpt for 16 participants
Warm-up questions:
1. What is your name?
2. In what “angkatan” are you?
3. When TP was done?
General questions on the problems faced by TP students:
1. How did you feel when you started teaching in the Private English Institution?
2. How many classes did you teach?
3. What kinds of classes did you teach?
4. From those classes, which one is the most challenging for you? Why?
5. Overall, what were the challenges that you faced in teaching in the Private English
Institution?
Specific questions about how the TP students do to develop their TP:
6. How do you become knowledgeable about how to teach?
Have you ever experienced in teaching before doing TP?
How did your previous experience help you in your TP?
What are the knowledge you gained in ED related to TP?
7. How do you become knowledgeable about the content of the subjects you teach?
What do you think about the materials in the Private English Institution
Did you master all the materials given? Which one and why?
How did you do to develop the materials given?
What are the knowledge you gained in ED related to the content of the subject
you teach?
8. How much do you learn things related to teaching in TP?
Teaching skill (e.g. classroom management, questioning techniques, etc.)
Teaching content (e.g. theories, understanding of the subject matter)
Other teaching related to matters (e.g. material development, how to handle
students)
9. What are the strategies you use to learn things related to teaching in TP?
10. Do you have any information you want to add related to TP in the Private English
Institution?
Appendix B
Interview excerpt for 4 participants through email
1. What is your name (pseudonym nama samaran)?
2. In what “angkatan” are you?
3. When TP was done?
4. How did you feel when you started teaching in the Private English Institution?
5. How many classes did you teach?
6. What kinds of classes did you teach?
7. From those classes, which one is the most challenging for you? Why?
8. Overall, what were the challenges that you faced in teaching in the Private English
Institution?
9. How do you become knowledgeable about how to teach?
10. Have you ever experienced in teaching before doing TP?
11. How did your previous experience help you in your TP? (If you don’t have experience
before doing teaching practice, what are the things which help you in teaching
practice?)
12. What are the knowledge you gained in ED related to TP?
13. How do you become knowledgeable about the content of the subjects you teach?
14. What do you think about the materials in the Private English Institution?
15. Did you master all the materials given? Which one and why?
16. How did you do to develop the materials given?
17. What are the knowledge you gained in ED related to the content of the subject you
teach?
18. How do you learn:
Teaching skill (e.g. classroom management, questioning techniques, etc.)
Teaching content (e.g. theories, understanding of the subject matter)
Other teaching related to matters (e.g. material development, how to handle
students)
19. What are the strategies you use to learn things related to teaching in TP?
20. Do you have any information you want to add related to TP in the Private English
Institution?
Appendix C
Transcription for John:
Hesty
: Good afternoon, thank you for coming. Today, I want several questions
about teaching practice in the Private English Institution. First of all, I want to
know your name…
John
: Ok, my name is John.
Hesty
: In what angkatan are you?
John
: I am 2007er
Hesty
: Ok. So, I think you have done your teaching practice, right?
John
: Yes.
Hesty
: So, when it was done?
John
: My teaching practice was done in 2010.
Hesty
: 2010. When you started teaching in the Private English Institution, how did
you feel?
John
: When I started teaching in the Private English Institution, I think it was the
first experience for me for teaching and it was to be very complicated.
Hesty
: Why it was complicated?
John
: Because I have no any background knowledge about teaching at all.
Hesty
: So, in the Private English Institution, how many classes did you teach?
John
: I taught maybe five or six times.
Hesty
: What are they?
John
: Do you mean I have to mention them?
Hesty
: Yes.
John
: Ok, so EP 1, EP 2, and Conversation Class, and after that TOEFL class, and I
also taught some students from health, AKBID, and beside that I think I taught
Children Class.
Hesty
: So, from those classes, which one is the most challenging for you?
John
: For me, I think Children Class is not challenging for me, maybe other friends
found Children Class is the most challenging but for me it was not challenging
because I enjoy teaching Children Class. I still remember up to now. Aldo is
very close to me so that I think I have no problems in teaching Children Class.
The most challenging is when I taught… what is that… not conversation
also… TOEFL class.
Hesty
: TOEFL class. Why?
John
: For me myself, at that time, I hate listening. I don’t know why but I hate it.
At that time, I taught TOEFL especially for listening.
Hesty
: When you hate listening for TOEFL, what are your strategies to deal with
listening in TOEFL class?
John
: My strategy at that time before the class started, I came earlier and I prepared
everything and at that time I had to try listening from the recording.
Fortunately, I already passed listening 1 up to listening 4, listening is already
trained so that it was not something new for us. Yeah… I prepared myself
before teaching.
Hesty
: Ok. Overall, what are the challenges you faced in teaching in the Private
English Institution?
John
: The most challenging? Do you mean all of the challenge?
Hesty
: Yes. All the challenges.
John
: Ok, I think about the time management also.
Hesty
: Why? Can you explain about the time management?
John
Hesty
John
Hesty
John
Hesty
John
Hesty
John
Hesty
John
Hesty
John
Hesty
John
Hesty
John
Hesty
John
Hesty
John
Hesty
: The problems at that time when I was taking 15 credits belong to finishing
my thesis. So, the problem was when I was learning in the class and suddenly
I have got the information and I have to teach, for example. I think this is the
problem for me about the time management but I enjoyed it.
: Do you mean the time management from you outside the teaching practice?
: Time management in here not only for me but also my friends because
maybe at that time we did not give our schedule of study in English
Department so it will be any adjustment between teaching practice here and
our learning. This is the first problem. The next problem was when we came
and the student did not come. That is the problem.
: Ok, so the problem is from the student itself?
: Yes, from the student itself. And then for those who haven’t had any English
background knowledge, I mean they haven’t, let say… they only come to take
English in that course. The thing that what they should do is knowing how to
speak in English but we don’t notice that they have to learn from the very
basic one, it means maybe they have to learn about English alphabet, their
interpretation in their mind is coming to be able to speak English and that is
the problem for teacher in teaching.
: So, what are your strategies for that?
: For my strategy, sometimes I just give advice.
: Ok, you gave advice for the students.
: Yes, I gave advice for the students that, “you could follow the course but
remember you have to find other way to improve your English so yeah to
make the progress to learn English."
: Any others?
: Another problem, for me myself.
: Ok, what is it?
: Actually, I don’t have any background knowledge in teaching.
: So, when you don’t have any background knowledge of teaching, how do
you learn teaching?
: Teaching Practicum in the Private English Institution became my first
experience in teaching and it becomes my teacher in teaching. That’s why I
learnt so much how to teach, how to face students. So, for strategy, I have so
many strategies I just learnt how to imitate our teachers when they were
teaching. How, when you become a teacher and you spent in front of your
students, what should you do? So, I learnt about it.
: So, you imitate from your teacher.
: Mostly, I imitate the teachers’ way of teaching when they were teaching at
that time.
: Any others? Or that’s all for the challenges?
: About the challenges, ehmm… but this is not the challenges but this is my
way to study. I think at that time, the first challenge for me is how to arrange
the lesson plan because arranging lesson plan in the Private English
Institution, you already know, it should be very detail but I think this is not the
problem. Maybe the problem comes from myself, not the problem from the
lesson plan itself, how to arrange it but it comes from myself.
: How about the material development?
: Material development in…?
: In making lesson plan, do you have the difficulties or not?
John
Hesty
John
Hesty
John
Hesty
John
Hesty
John
Hesty
John
Hesty
John
Hesty
John
Hesty
John
Hesty
John
: I think in making lesson plan, my guru pamong at that time taught us many
things. Gave the strategies in arranging good lesson plan and we follow that.
And you know, finally I got the good score for that.
: So, how do you become knowledgeable about how to teach?
: Become knowledgeable, do you mean that I after teaching or …?
: Before and after teaching.
: Before teaching, I didn’t have any experience in teaching so that it was very
difficult for me and when I taught the students, sometimes I thought, can I do
that? What should I do? And you know sometimes like I feel I was in
somethin