Teachers\' Personality Competencies

Kompas/Riza Fathoni

A teacher leads a classroom activity on Thursday (8/3) at the Ar-Rahmaniyah Teacher Training and Education Institute (STKIP) in Citayam, Depok, West Java.

The teaching methods used most teachers are actually not much different from earlier ones.

Teachers generally teach use a one-way model. There are only a limited number of teachers who encourage students to develop their reasoning and imaginations through questioning, dialogue and solving  various problems. How can we expect such a dull and unimaginative learning model to develop 21^st century attitudes and skills for our country, which is said to be facing an era of the Industry 4.0 revolution (Era 4.0) and demographic bonuses. This picture is not very encouraging even though the normative basics for active and productive learning have long existed in our education regulations.

Teachers as educators who create an atmosphere and employ various teaching methodologies to enable their students to actively develop their potential, as defined by Law No. 20/2003 on the National Education System (Sisdiknas) continue to be neglected. The same is true in the learning theory and approach to Curriculum 2013, which requires teachers to observe the needs, abilities, talents and interests of students individually so that their potential can be developed, is still far from expectation.

If teachers are considered to be failing in implementing learning reforms and have not been able to meet what is required by modern society, they must not be given full blame.

The policy of professionalism, through various incentives, including professional allowance, has improved the welfare of  teachers. However, the notion that if the welfare of teachers improves, then their performance will also, does not apply. Providing incentives without being accompanied by the management of motives and performance is not only ineffective but can also increase the workload of teachers. As a result, teachers are no more than just carrying out routine work. That is all they know.

Both the central and regional governments, possibly due to limited funds, limited knowledge, or political reasons, prefer short term policies, such as constructing buildings, providing equipment, curriculum and administration, rather than working out on substantial policies to implement the learning model reforms.

In fact, the core of the educational process and the end result of the entire education plan are dependent on the approaches, methods, and teaching processes and learning activities that follow. The high cost of buildings and other things is only justified as long as they support the main goals.

Teaching profession

The hardest and drawn out part in improving the quality of learning is to change the habit and attitude of a long-established teacher generation. It has been 15 years for the  idea to change and improve the quality of learning by improving the achievement and performance of the teachers as mentioned in the National Education System Law. The idea is then packaged and operationalized as "professionalism" in Law No. 14/2005 on Teachers and Lecturers in which teacher quality is objectified through academic qualifications, competence, and teacher certification. But it has been unmoved.

The policy of teacher professionalism has scandalized our education situation, as if an important change has taken place in the substance of the teaching profession. Actually, the reality is not. How it will change if the various programs that have been run do not touch the esoteric factors of the personality that drive the teacher\'s performance. The personality of teachers, which becomes one of the four determined competencies, is very decisive for the teacher\'s performance.

However competent the pedagogical competence and the depth of professional competence of a teacher, if his personality is bad, such as less responsible, lazy, static, soulless, materialistic, easily getting angry, egocentric, discriminatory and undemocratic, will make learning/education ineffective.

On the contrary, a teacher whose spirit of "life" will run on his own to complete his various shortcomings in other competencies. Continuous improvement is the main principle of professionalism that lies within the personality of a teacher. Unfortunately, the personality competence which should be the basis of teacher performance development has not been touched in professionalism emphasis so far. A question which needs to be clarified to address the teacher performance is why the teachers teach in the way they do it?

This deals with the background, the process of formation, and the development of the teacher\'s personality. Even though the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) 2015 data shows encouraging developments that 3 out of 10 Indonesian 15-year-old students want to become teachers, in reality, teaching profession is not always considered prestigious, except in rural community. When the Dutch Government in the mid-19th century began to establish vocational schools (vakscholen), the elite and indigenous rich were more interested in the "Radja School" (Hoofdenscholen/Native Civil Servant Candidate School) than entering the Native Teacher Training School (Kweekschool).

This tendency seems to be continuing, teacher education schools (SGA, SPG) and teacher training institutes (LPTK, formerly IKIP) are considered to have lower rank than high schools and non-teaching universities. Most students who have the best academic achievement are not interested in entering the teachers training institutes. The OECD data also mentions that students who expect to have a career as a teacher generally have lower math and reading skills than students who intend to be professionals other than teachers.

Moreover, according to Professor Beeby (1987), about 80 percent of those entering the  teachers training institutions in Indonesia are students with economically weak backgrounds. In general, they are not interested in becoming teachers, but because they fail to enter more prestigious non-teaching schools or universities or because the teacher training institutes are cheaper or giving scholarships/commitment to work for the government after graduation.

Later, as reflected in OECD and World Bank data (2012), because the teacher incomes improve (due to teacher profession allowances), the interests of young people to become teachers increase so that we witness 69.4 percent of participants of Joint Entrance Selection for State Universities (SBMPTN) and National Selection for State Universities (SNMPTN) in 2013 made their primary choice on LPTKs (Kompas, 9/7/2013).

With an inadequate social and intellectual background, prospective teachers are prepared in an education process which is insufficiently democratic/dialogical which enables the emergence of profession pride, the formation of a strong personality, and the resilience of analytical/critical thinking skills.

The situation of traditional teacher education continues up to the present, even though here and there it is supported by various learning technologies. The deterioration in the quality of the teacher education now even reaches it extreme point in relation to the many unprofessional LPTKs (according to data of the Research, Technology and Higher Education Ministry: there are 422 LPTKs, consisting of  41 state universities and there rest are privately run. Only seven percent of the study programs at the state universities have  A accreditation, 35 percent with B accreditation, 23 percent with C accreditation, and the remaining 35 percent have not yet been accredited Those which have not had accreditation are usually worse).

After decades of service, most teachers across the country have no training (inservice training), so that they work like performing an ancient "ritual" with a lackluster performance and shabby books. In 2006/2007, the government began to implement a portfolio certification program as an important part of "professionalism" which is then followed by a series of programs that qualitatively have less positive impacts, such as teacher competency (UKG), teacher learning (GP) program, and sustainable profession development (PKB).

For basic and broad improvement, LPTK redesign is a necessity. Since the change of  IKIP into universities in 1999, the actual arrangement of LPTKs has begun. Unfortunately, such a reform has no clear-cut concept and is carried out in separate pieces. It was followed by the Law on Teachers and Lecturers Law (GD) in 2005 where LPTKs, which should only provide teacher profession education (PPG) and no longer provide teacher training in the S-1 diplomas, do not work well too.

Improvement of LPTKs with the teacher education program (PPG) must be followed by quality development strategy mainly through improvement of the recruitment system and learning process of the prospective teachers. The rising interest of young people to become teachers can be used as a starting point for improvement by conducting better selection.

Challenges in sight

The commitment of stakeholders, both at the central government level and at the regional government level, must help prepare and manage teachers to face the unusual challenges.

The challenge of education today is the low level of capability of our students, especially in (high level) "thinking". To solve this problem, the first and main thing is not to give teachers the ability to use latest sophisticated technology, but how we change the mindset and open the horizon to form a new personality candidate capable of organizing "dialogical" learning.

Thus, the learning process, including apprenticeship at LPTKs and PPGs, has to be a stage of making them to be independent and strengthening of teacher candidate personalities.

Meanwhile, for teachers at the office level, active role of regional governments is highly expected. Teacher competency training programs, especially personality competencies projected with revitalization of the association of Subject Teachers Deliberation (MGMP) and Teacher Working Groups (KKG) and other teacher associations, need to be prioritized with an adequate budget. The stagnation we have experienced in the past 15 years has been caused by the weak commitment of local governments to the promotion of education. Education is an autonomous affair, but its implementation in the regions so far has been manipulated from the budgeting side and politicized for the winning in regional elections only.

Mohammad Abduhzen, Chairman, Research and Development Division of the Executive Board of the Indonesian Teachers Union (PGRI)