Linking Pre-service Teacher Education

and In-service Teacher Training for

Effective Results in Indonesia

Feiny Sentosa and Rina Arlianti

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Linking Pre-service Teacher Education and In-service Teacher

Training for Effective Results in Indonesia

Feiny Sentosa and Rina Arlianti

Abstract

Teachers need ongoing professional development in order to ensure they provide good

quality education using teaching strategies appropriate with the changing needs of the

students. They also need to ensure that they are implementing the curriculum in alignment

with government policy. This paper touches upon three main areas in relation to teacher

education and continuing professional development that are important areas of focus of

PRIORITAS, a USAID funded basic education project in Indonesia (2012-2017). First,

the paper looks at how the project ensures a ‘whole school’ approach to in-service

teacher professional development through training and regular school cluster meetings.

This approach to training offers practical strategies to putting in place student centered

teaching and learning which is meaningful and educationally enjoyable. The paper also

examines how the pre-service education programs can be linked with in-service

professional development that emphasizes practice. This is to ensure that the programs

provided by teacher training institutes can equip future teachers to teach effectively

immediately after graduation. Lastly, good practices resulting from this teacher training

need to be scaled up to be sustainable. This can be achieved through commitment and

improved management and governance at the school and district levels.

1. Introduction

This paper elaborates the main approach implemented in relation to teacher education and

continuing professional development for teachers of basic education, based on our

experiences working with the USAID PRIORITAS1 program in Indonesia. The thrust of

the paper is that a closer link between pre-service and in-service training can have mutual

benefits both for schools and for teacher training institutes in universities or elsewhere (in

this paper, referred to as Teacher Training Institutes or TTIs). Schools gain better teaching

methodology and better school management that supports teaching and learning through

the whole school approach developed by the project. On the other hand, Teacher Training

Institutes gain real practical experience from the classroom through the implementation of

the whole school development activities and other programs such as teacher practicum,

classroom action research and curriculum improvement. The paper first describes the

whole school approach which the program is implementing in pre-service and in-service

teacher training. Then the paper describes how the partner schools and partner TTIs work

in a two way learning partnership to achieve better results. Lastly, as PRIORITAS only

works directly with a small number of schools, dissemination of the programs

implemented by PRIORITAS is a key component to ensure that non-partner schools can

benefit from these good practices. This can be achieved through increased commitment of

the local government and improved planning. The programs and activities implemented by

PRIORITAS go beyond the three main areas described in the paper. The paper provides a

1 PRIORITAS is the acronym derived from Prioritizing Reform, Innovation, and Opportunities for Reaching

Indonesia’s Teachers, Administrators and Students.

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brief overview of the PRIORITAS program to set the context within which the discussion

of the three main topics take place.

2. Overview of USAID PRIORITAS

PRIORITAS is a five year USAID funded project designed to improve access to quality

basic education for children in Indonesia, in line with the Ministry of Education and

Culture's Strategic Plan (2010-2014). The program started in May 2012 and is currently

working in almost 100 partner districts in eight provinces, namely Aceh, North Sumatera,

Banten, West Java, Central Java, East Java, South Sulawesi, and Papua.

The PRIORITAS program design was built on lessons learned from an earlier USAID

funded program, Decentralized Basic Education (DBE, 2005-2011)2, USAID’s initial

basic education program in Indonesia, Managing Basic Education (MBE, 2003-2007) and

other similar programs. To support dissemination of previously implemented good

practices in former DBE districts, low-level support has been provided to most of these

districts. The below figure illustrates the roll-out strategy for five years.

Figure 1: Five-Year Implementation Plan

Year 1 Year 2 Year 3 Year 4 Year 5

2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017

Former DBE Districts (46) 40 districts

Cohort 1 PRIORITAS Districts (23) + 16 Teacher Training Institutes

Cohort 2 PRIORITAS Districts (22)

Cohort 3 PRIORITAS Districts (7)

The program is working closely with national and local partners to (i) improve the quality

and relevance of teaching and learning in schools through pre and in-service training; (ii)

develop better management and governance in schools and districts so that teachers are

receiving support from school administrations to teach better; and (iii) support better

coordination within and between schools, teacher training institutions and government at

all levels.

A core strategy of the program is to work with the selected partner TTIs to develop their

capacity to design and provide effective pre and in-service teacher training programs

based on good practice principles. The aim is to strengthen linkages between schools,

districts, provinces and TTIs to improve the delivery of teacher in-service training and

support for better governance and management at schools and district levels. In the past,

donor efforts have focused more on in-service education for already practicing teachers,

which has meant that graduates emerging from TTIs have not necessarily been exposed to

innovations in teaching and management, which they may encounter for the first time

when practice teaching in schools. PRIORITAS seeks to rectify that by ensuring that the

lecturers of TTIs are also trained in participative and accountable school management and

community participation, as well as modern and innovative teaching and learning

2 Decentralized Basic Education program was the cornerstone of the United States’ assistance to education in

Indonesia and was designed to directly respond to the Government of Indonesia’s priorities to decentralize

and revitalize the education sector. It focused on improving school management and governance and the

quality and relevance of education in primary and junior secondary schools.

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approaches and are able to communicate, and more importantly, to model these to their

students.

For in-service teachers, PRIORITAS is working with 16 primary and eight junior

secondary schools in each of the program partner districts through a series of teacher

training activities. For pre-service teacher training, the program is working with 16 teacher

training institutes (TTIs) and an additional 31 through TTI consortia. Each partner TTI is

working with six primary and three junior secondary schools as their laboratory and

partner schools. In total, the program is working directly with 788 primary schools and

393 junior secondary schools3.

3. Linking Pre-service and In-service Teacher Training through the

Whole School Development Approach and Classroom Experience

Pre-service teacher education in Indonesia is conducted by Teacher Training Institutes

(TTIs) and requires four years of post secondary education. TTI Programs consist of

teacher training for primary school teachers and subject specific training for teachers for

secondary schools. A number of TTIs are also tasked to provide in-service professional

teacher training for teachers before they are awarded certification. By default, TTIs are

also one of the service providers for on-going teacher’s professional development.

In Indonesia, the pre-service teacher training program tends to be very theoretical and

lecturers rarely model active learning methodology during “microteaching” sessions and

practice teachers are poorly monitored. Recognizing these problems, and the crucial role

of TTIs in preparing future teachers, PRIORITAS is working to improve the TTIs’

capacity in providing pre-service and in-service training programs that emphasize practice

using TTI laboratory and partner schools. Therefore, schools and TTIs, as mutual

beneficiaries, should be working as partners to define the way that can shape the teaching

profession and the quality of teaching and learning in the classroom. PRIORITAS brings

the partner TTIs closer to the classroom through providing a network of good practice

teaching schools across districts and provinces in which TTIs can place their students for

practicums and use for other development activities such as classroom action research

(CAR). The classroom also provides ongoing feedback to TTIs to continue the

development of more effective and practical teacher training programs.

3.1 The Whole School Development Program

The PRIORITAS whole school development program focuses on developing the school, in

all its aspects as an institution, which includes three broad components: teaching and

learning, community participation and school management. These components are

interrelated and work together to achieve the ultimate goal of providing better quality

instruction to children.

The whole school development approach adopted by PRIORITAS involves all members

of the school community, including teachers, the school principal, school committee

members, the community, school supervisors and district office administrators. This

approach is based on lessons learned from projects implemented much earlier on, in which

only partial success was achieved when training and capacity development was separated

3 Compared to 171,074 primary schools and 51,361 junior secondary schools in Indonesia nationwide. All

MOEC data was taken from http://dapo.dikdas.kemdikbud.go.id/, accessed 16 October 2014. All MORA

data was taken from http://emispendis.kemenag.go.id/emis2014/emis_dh/, accessed 18 October 2014.

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between teachers for teaching and learning and school principals for school management.

Success in teaching and learning requires full support of school management. Therefore, it

is important to include school managers in the teachers’ training so that they can better

support teachers’ needs through school improvement plans which prioritize quality of

learning. Likewise, training for school management also includes supervisors, teachers and

school committee members in order to promote participative, accountable and transparent

management.

The whole school development delivered to all the partner schools consists of a series of

activities following a certain sequence as follows: 1) introduction of the program to all

education stakeholders at the beginning of the intervention; 2) study visits to good practice

schools for participants to view, at first hand, how whole school development can be

implemented; 3) school training that is conducted through a cascade model. The provincial

training facilitators, including from TTI, support the district facilitators in preparing and

delivering training in order to reduce dilution of the impact of the training. The training

facilitators consist of teachers, principals, school supervisors, and TTI lecturers. Including

lecturers as regular training team facilitators enables them to link pre-service training to

school and classroom realities and provides a channel for innovations to reach schools, as

well as enabling lecturers to translate their experience into improved pre-service content;

4) structured on site mentoring that is provided by district and TTI facilitators to assist

schools in the implementation of good practices. These ‘mentoring’ activities are crucial in

achieving real impact at the school level and are training teachers and principals to think

critically about what they are doing rather than blindly implementing what an ‘expert’ tells

them to do; and finally; 5) district as well as provincial showcases, which are the

culmination of school achievements. More about showcases is explained in the

Dissemination section of the paper.

3.1.1 Whole School Development Training Modules

PRIORITAS whole school development training modules support the national education

quality improvement program and are in line with the current 2013 national curriculum.

The modules are developed following a series of consultations and reviews involving

specialists, education technical stakeholders from various institutions, including TTIs,

MOEC and MORA.

Many in-service teachers do not necessarily have the required knowledge and skills to

teach effectively. Many teachers still apply the traditional method of teaching they are

familiar with. The training modules developed by the program provide practical

approaches to teaching both for in-service teachers and TTI lecturers. The topics cover the

basic principles of active teaching and learning methodologies, effective classroom

management, school management, community participation, and practical strategies to

implement the new 2013 national curriculum. All training modules are accompanied by

videos. The videos have greatly enhanced the program’s training activities because they

enable participants in training to directly witness good practices and hear from other

practitioners.

3.1.2 Whole School Development in TTIs

The same training modules developed for use in in-service training with the program

partner schools are also implemented in in-service delivery with TTI laboratory and

partner schools. Furthermore, these modules are adapted for use in TTI pre-service

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programs. The pedagogy lecturers from the partner TTIs and selected TTI consortia

partner members are trained to use the modules for pre-service program. The TTI lecturers

who are involved in the adaptation and in-service teacher training conduct the training.

The training focuses on developing the teaching methodologies to be used by the lecturers

themselves, which should mirror those which they will be teaching to their students, since

students educated using active and participative learning are much more likely to use it in

their own teaching. Lecturers themselves have found the training in the active teaching

methodology very useful as many of them have not previously taught in schools. Through

the practice teaching component of the training, lecturers, working alongside district

facilitators, are able to gain better understanding of the challenges and needs of the

classroom teachers. This experience will help lecturers to blend theory and good practice

in their courses.

3.2 TTI Laboratory and Partner Schools

All pre-service teacher education degrees in Indonesia require student teachers to

undertake teaching practice in authentic contexts to make connections between theory and

practice. PRIORITAS works with a small subset of schools used by partner TTIs for

teaching practice for targeted improvement and as a laboratory for trialing new teaching

approaches. The schools are in close proximity where it is possible for the partner TTIs to

encourage on-going collaboration. These schools play a key role in providing authentic

settings for TTI program implementation activities, curriculum improvement, teacher

practicum programs, classroom action research and whole school development activities.

Through these activities, TTI lecturers learn how to tailor training to the day-to-day

realities of teachers’ classrooms and will enrich their course offerings and instructional

practices as a result. The action research activities will also provide TTI lecturers, trainees,

district facilitators and teachers with opportunities to reflect and improve their practice.

The TTI lab and partner schools receive the same kind of training content as in the

program partner schools using the same cascade training model. All training is followed

by on-site technical support in the form of mentoring to ensure continued support and

feedback for school practitioners.

3.3 Development of Pre-service Curriculum Materials

Curriculum materials in pre-service program tend to be heavily theoretical. In addition to

the whole school development program, PRIORITAS is also working with TTIs on the

development of specific pre-service curriculum materials. These resource materials are

introduced, explored, and implemented through activity sessions that link theory to

practice. The aim of the materials is to strengthen content knowledge of selected topics in

teaching reading, mathematics, and science, and most importantly, to show how this

knowledge could be practically applied in the pre-service program.

The program has undertaken an Early Grade Reading Assessment (EGRA) in a sample of

partner schools, as well as student assessments in mathematics, science and Bahasa

Indonesia in the higher grades. Topics for the curriculum materials are based on the

findings of these assessments and input from TTI lecturers. These subject specific

materials serve as teaching resources for TTI lecturers. Lecturers from the 16 partner TTIs

and other TTIs are trained to use these materials. These pre-service curriculum materials

are, in turn, used to develop the subsequent training modules for pre-service and in-service

school training. Thus, the same methodology and materials used by the lecturers in TTI

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with the university students are also being implemented at partner schools with in-service

teachers.

3.4. Good Practice Schools

A few months following school training and mentoring, a small number of schools in each

partner district are selected for their evidenced commitment and uptake of effective whole

school management and teaching and learning practices. They are referred to as good

practice schools. The good practice schools provide a hub for improved pre and in-service

teacher professional development at the local level. The good practice schools perform

multiple functions as centers for professional development and as examples of effective

schools, where active teaching and learning practices, school based management, and

community participation are evident. Activities such as teacher working group meetings,

in-service teacher training, and pre-service practice teaching programs can be carried out

in these schools, providing an effective context for continued school improvement in the

district. Good practice schools, which provide concrete examples of effective whole

school development, can also host visits from other schools, from within and outside the

district. The selected schools will be supported by the program’s TTI and district

facilitators to ensure continued growth. It is hoped that the good practice schools can serve

as a link between TTIs, in-service training entities, local government and surrounding

schools, enabling a continuous learning loop to function between teacher training and real

classroom performance and school governance.

4. Results

PRIORITAS undertakes annual monitoring activities in a sample of partner and

comparison school and district offices. A baseline is established in the first year of

intervention and repeat monitoring is conducted in the following years to measure the

impact of program interventions. Data on teachers, lecturers and student behavior is

collected through classroom observation and information on school principal’s leadership

is collected through interviews and group discussions. Repeat monitoring has only been

conducted in the partner schools in Cohort 1. The monitoring has shown positive changes

from the whole school development approach. These results are illustrated in the following

graph. Students demonstrated improvement in learning behavior, and teachers

demonstrated good practices in teaching and assessment. Principals and the community

showed increased support for teaching and school environment.

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Figure 2: Monitoring results in schools

5. Dissemination and Sustainability of Good Practices

An important objective of PRIORITAS, with regard to the dissemination and

sustainability of good practices, is to develop capacity and commitment within provincial

and district governments, TTIs and the provincial level Quality Assurance Institutes

(LPMP) to further develop and disseminate good practices.

5.1 Dissemination Approaches

There are two dissemination approaches that are used by PRIORITAS:

1) Former DBE districts: PRIORITAS has provided limited assistance to 46 former

Decentralized Basic Education districts by supporting district facilitators in

disseminating the program training modules to schools, which had not received

similar training before. This dissemination training is usually conducted and

funded by the District Education Office or the schools themselves through the

school operational funds they receive from the central Government. The

dissemination activities show evidence of school and district’s commitment to

quality improvement in education.

2) In PRIORITAS partner districts: District and subsequent provincial showcases

(or education exhibitions) are held a few months after school training. During the

showcase meetings, all school participants display their achievements and present

and review the results and impact of the training in their schools. The education

showcases bring together high-level representatives of all the DBE and USAID

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PRIORITAS partner districts, including many Heads of Districts, high-level

provincial officials, including several Vice Governors, and high-level

representatives from MOEC and MORA. It is hoped that achievements of the

program can encourage government at all levels to support the dissemination of the

programs.

PRIORITAS only supports dissemination activities that meet the program’s criteria of

good practice in training. Training programs should:

Include a significant number of teachers and other participants from each school

Include the entire training program as designed by DBE or USAID PRIORITAS

Be implemented by trained facilitators

To date, PRIORITAS has assisted in the dissemination of good practices, including DBE

programs and approaches to 35,993 educationists from 8,657 institutions (mainly schools)

across 7 provinces and 59 districts, benefitting over 2,307,000 primary and junior

secondary schools students. The commitment of USD 237,000 in funding for

dissemination by USAID PRIORITAS has successfully leveraged a total of USD 1.24

million from local partners. This achievement has been enabled by increased districts’

commitment to and priority for quality improvement.

5.2 Study of Dissemination and Sustainability

USAID PRIORITAS conducted a study of the dissemination of program activities in April

and May 2014 (Cannon, Arlianti and Riu, 2014). The study aimed to 1) assess the extent

of dissemination and sustainability in former DBE districts; 2) estimate the impact of these

programs; and 3) make recommendations for future dissemination of PRIORITAS

programs.

The dissemination study team made visits to six districts in three provinces. Activities

conducted during the visits to each district included visits to four schools, meetings with

local stakeholders and classroom visits to observe teaching taking place. Discussions were

also held with local government staff, other district stakeholders, and district training

facilitators.

The focus of the team’s fieldwork was mostly on the dissemination of active learning

approaches to primary schools and to junior secondary schools.

The main findings related to the PRIORITAS dissemination and sustainability study are:

1) There has been extensive dissemination of good practice programs in the six districts; in

the six months prior to March 2014, 3,465 schools and 13,933 teachers had been reached.

There is considerable further dissemination within schools and among schools in school

clusters and beyond, at rates much higher than the figures here would suggest; and 2)

There have been very high levels of satisfaction with disseminated changes among

students, teachers, principals, and school communities; improved student learning and

positive changes in attitudes, motivation, and social skills. There are very strong

indications of local responsibility, ownership, pride, and enthusiasm for improvements

that have been made through the USAID PRIORITAS partnership with local government.

Although it is obvious that there is no clear pattern in the dissemination and sustainability

in the six districts visited there are key aspects contributing to the successful

dissemination. They include the following: 1) Reform ownership: there is a move towards

local ownership and management of reform by districts, sub districts, schools and their

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communities; 2) There is a change in the “mindset” of the education profession. Schools

are requesting and paying for the dissemination training themselves; 3) The PRIORITAS

approach is also aligned with government policies and also supports the implementation of

Curriculum 2013; 4) District Commitment to improving education quality is increased as

reflected in the plans and budgets.

A complete dissemination report can be accessed at www.prioritaspendidikan.org.

6. Conclusions

The paper has illustrated PRIORITAS experience in working with stakeholders at all

levels from various institutions to develop their capacity and commitment in providing

pre-service and in-service teacher training using the whole school development approach.

Through this approach, teachers and principals are able to apply what they have acquired

in training with the support of facilitators during mentoring. Principals’ improved school

management combined with school committee and the community’s improved

understanding of their role, enable them to provide better support for teachers and their

needs in the classrooms. Districts’ improved plans and commitment for quality education

allow them to provide support for teachers’ on-going professional development. The

support from the various stakeholders, from school principals, to community and district

education offices helps ensure the implementation of good quality instruction. To quote

D. Muijs et. al, 2014 in “State of the art – teacher effectiveness and professional

learning”4,

Teachers cannot meet new challenges in teaching and learning alone, so

everyone who has a place in the chain of influence from policy to practice

needs to ensure that the right conditions for professional learning are in

place.

The program partner teacher training institutes do not only provide in-service training to

their laboratory and partner schools. In fact, TTIs benefit from their partnership with these

schools. The schools play a key role in serving as a testing field for innovations, teacher

practicum programs, curriculum improvements, classroom action research and whole

school development activities. This two-way learning between schools and TTIs provides

lecturers with richer understanding and insights to better link theory with good practice in

teaching and learning. It is hoped that through this partnership with schools, TTIs will

continue to be able to provide more effective in-service teacher training and pre-service

teacher education programs that better equip future teachers.

The dissemination study shows that with relatively low levels of support from the

program, dissemination activities can be sustainable and good quality education can

extend its reach to many more children. As recommended by the dissemination study

team, PRIORITAS is continuing to scale up the good practices in education both in former

DBE as well as within the PRIORITAS districts. With the changing mindset of education

professionals and districts’ increased commitment toward better quality education, it is

expected that good practices in education will evolve and positive changes will be

sustained well beyond the life of the program.

4 Muijs, D. et al. (2014). State of the art: teacher effectiveness and professional learning. School

Effectiveness and School Improvement, 25, 2, 231-256.

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References

Cannon, R., Arlianti, R., and Riu, I. (2014). Dissemination and Sustainability of DBE and

USAID PRIORITAS Programs. USAID Indonesia. Jakarta.

Ministry of Education and Culture, 2010. Strategic Plan of the Ministry of Education and

Culture, 2010 – 2014. Jakarta.

USAID PRIORITAS Project Documents, Reports and Work Plans. 2012, 2013, 2014.

Feiny Sentosa (Deputy Chief of Party, USAID-PRIORITAS Indonesia)

Ms. Feiny Sentosa has over 20 years' experience in teaching, training and education

management in Indonesia, the Lao PDR, and New Zealand. She is currently Deputy Chief

of Party for the USAID PRIORITAS program. She previously worked at the World Bank

Basic Education Capacity - Trust Fund and on the UNICEF implemented Mainstreaming

Good Practices in Basic Education. Ms. Sentosa holds a Master of Arts in International

Affairs with a major in Southeast Asian Studies and another Masters in Applied

Linguistics from Ohio University, USA.

Rina Arlianti (Consultant in Education and Development)

Ms. Rina Arlianti has 40 years of experience in the education sector and worked for many

years at the Indonesian Ministry of Education and Culture. She was seconded by the

Ministry to work as a curriculum specialist at the Center for Vocational and Technical

Education and Training (SEAMEO VOCTECH) in Brunei Darussalam from 2001 to 2004.

Since 2005 she has worked as an independent consultant for national and international

agencies in basic education, higher education, TVET, and education management. Rina

graduated from the Bogor Institute of Agriculture and did her Masters degree in

Management specializing in Human Resources Development.