How important are today’s teacher development program contents for primary school teacher?

Abstract

Teacher development program (TDP) will only be effective when it answers the teacher's need. This study aims to find out how important the training content that has been delivered in the TDP. The training contents listed in this study drawn from the Teacher Working Group, the School of Master Teacher program organized by Sekolah Guru Indonesia Dompet Dhuafa and teacher development at Sukma Bangsa School. A total of 327 primary school teachers have participated in the study which was designed based on survey model. The study was limited to primary school teachers due to different teacher needs of other school levels may be occurred. The data of this study were obtained by using a questionnaire comprised of 13 close-ended items in the form of the rating scale. Descriptive statistics include the percentage, frequency, mean, and standard deviation for data analysis. According to the study results, 84,1% of respondents chosen classroom management as the most important training content to learn. Another indication of the result is that the teachers also need to learn teaching and learning models, developmental psychology, teaching motivation, teaching and learning evaluation, teaching and learning media, technology-based learning, lesson plan, 2013 curriculum, classroom display, public speaking and literacy-based learning that more than 50% teachers defined them as very important to learn. However, only 47% of respondents mentioned Classroom Action Research is very important to learn. Based on the results of this study, the designer of TDP suggested considering classroom management as the first priority to deliver in the TDP followed by teaching and learning models, developmental psychology, teaching motivation, teaching and learning evaluation, teaching and learning media, technology-based learning, lesson plan, 2013 curriculum, classroom display, public speaking and literacy-based learning. In addition, it has to pay more attention to the teacher's need level of Classroom Action Research that is still very low due to improving their motivation to do research.