Abstract
Teacher professional development is an ongoing process. Standing on the frontline in implementing educational policies, teachers are encouraged to actualize both theoretically, policies, and practices. One way to improve the professionalism of a teacher is reflection through an academic forum so as to enrich the inquiry obtained in order to improve individual professionalism. This is an ongoing research involving English teachers in East Java members of the ELT Best Practices academic forum. The goal is to elaborate two basic things, namely the motivation of teachers in their involvement in academic forums and how academic forums can help them in conducting self-reflection in order to increase professionalism. Almost all teachers say that increasing professionalism as an English teacher is the main motivation. In detail, several aspects that are the focus of improvement are language skills, teaching techniques, the renewal of language teaching theories, and increasing networking among English teacher professions. With diverse backgrounds ranging from English teachers in middle and high school (or similar), the academic forum is considered important to help the teachers upgrade their knowledge and professionalism.
Highlights
Assessing teacher competency becomes a vital instrument for policy-making in developed countries
Teacher competency refers to a number of indicators that can be used as a measure of the characteristics of teachers who are judged to be professionally competent, which cover a combination of personal, scientific, technological, social, and spiritual abilities; these aspects are believed to contribute to teacher’s mastery in terms of material, understanding of students, learning that educates, personal development, and professionalism (Mulyasa, 2007)
In Indonesia, the understanding on teacher professional development has been currently limited to seminars and workshops which are dominated by one-way activities; the teachers are positioned as recipients of the materials
Summary
Assessing teacher competency becomes a vital instrument for policy-making in developed countries. This study seeks to elaborate one practice to assist teacher to reflect what they have done in the teaching practices as well as locate their expectation as part of developing their professionalism. Teacher competency refers to a number of indicators that can be used as a measure of the characteristics of teachers who are judged to be professionally competent, which cover a combination of personal, scientific, technological, social, and spiritual abilities; these aspects are believed to contribute to teacher’s mastery in terms of material, understanding of students, learning that educates, personal development, and professionalism (Mulyasa, 2007). In Indonesia, the understanding on teacher professional development has been currently limited to seminars and workshops which are dominated by one-way activities; the teachers are positioned as recipients of the materials. The ability of teachers tends to stagnate and follow instructions that have been given
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