Teacher Certification and The Quest for Teacher

Quality in Indonesia

Iwan Syahril

Michigan State University

Presented at the Comparative and International Education Society (CIES) Annual Conference, New Orleans, March 13, 2013

Special thanks to the Educational Policy Program at Michigan State University for its support in this presentation

Presentation Outline• Teacher Certification Policy in Indonesia

• Teacher Professionalism Framework

• Question & Data Collection

• Findings

• Lessons Learned

• Final Notes

17,501 islands; 240 million people; 350 ethnic groups; 745 languages; 55.8 million students; 3.8 million teachers; 314,000 schools; 34 provinces (ADB, 2010)

Figure 1 : Indonesian Map (http://www.freeworldmaps.net/asia/indonesia/indonesia-map-political-big.jpg)

Figure 2. Indonesia’s Strategy for Teacher Quality Improvement ( Adapted from Jalal et al., 2009).

Society

Teachers

Government

Teacher Law No. 14/2005

Teacher Certification Policy

Pedagogical Competence(teaching ability) Personal

Competence(character & role model)

Professional Competence

(training & education)

Social Competence (community

participation)

Minimum bachelor’s degree + Certification Exam

2007 --> 37.5% teachers w/ min BA/BSc degree.

2015 --> all teachers certified!

Figure 3. Teacher Certification Policy in Indonesia

Base salary doubled

Figure 4. Teacher Certification Mechanism (SMERU, 2012)

• A profession should have:

✓ a shared culture, specialized knowledge base, and standards of practice developed and advanced by members of the profession;

✓ a monopoly over practice with a service ethic by being committed to client’s needs;

✓ a great degree of autonomy, controlling practice according to its own standards, norms and ethics.

A profession(Hargreaves, 2000)

• Being professional: quality & standards of practice (e.g., all teachers must have bachelor’s degree & pass certification exam).

• Being a professional: status & standing. (e.g., doubling base salary, social standing).

• Professional capital: human, social, decisional (Hargreaves & Fullan, 2012).

Professional Capital(Hargreaves & Fullan, 2012)

Human capital

Social Capital

Decisional Capital

Pedagogical Competence

(teaching ability)

Professional Competence

(training & education)

Personal Competence

(character, role model)

Social Competence

(community engagement)

Figure 5. The Logic of The Indonesian Teacher Certification Policy.

Professional Training &

Assessment

Increased knowledge,

skills; improved welfare

Being professional,

being a professional

Teacher Certification

Teacher Quality

Teacher Professionalism

Costing about $5.6 billion, the Indonesian teacher certification program is perhaps the most expensive one in the (developing) world (Fahmi, Maulana, Yusuf, 2011).

Question: Does the Indonesian teacher certification improve

teacher and teaching quality? What do we know so far?

• Search engine: Google Scholar.

• Keywords: teacher certification, Indonesia; sertifikasi guru.

• Analyzed the first 25 result pages.

• Articles accessible through MSU services.

Data Collection

Results

• 43 full papers, 57 abstracts.

• First filter: research-based, talking about impacts of teacher certification: 13 papers.

• Second filter: clear methodology, at least 10 references: 6 papers.

Study Findings Notes

Teacher Certification and Student Test Scores: Evidence from IndonesiaAuthor: Prita N. Kusumawardhani.

Source: Master’s thesis, Tinbergen Institute.

No significant impact on students’ test scores.

1) Only the first 4 months of school year. 2) Should have been matched with previous, not present teachers. 3) Estimate, not actual scores.

Improving Teacher Professionalism through Certification Program: An Indonesian Case StudyAuthor: Triyanto.

Source: World Academy of Science, Engineering and Technology, 67, 2012.

1) The certified teachers do not show significant performance improvement.

2) There are some serious issues with the portfolio assessment: data discrepancies, bribery, and falsification of documents.

Unclear link between methods and results (no report on data from interview data, observation, FGD); thus the conclusion is questionable.

Unclear definitions on key terms: teacher performance, and significant/insignificant teacher performance.

The performance evaluation of the certified high school physics, biology, and chemistry teachers.Authors: Yusrizal, Soewarno S., Zarlaida Fitri

Source: Jurnal Penelitian dan Evaluasi Pendidikan, Tahun 15, Nomor 2, 2011.

1)The evaluation instrument was reliable.

2) The majority of certified science (biology, physics, chemistry) teachers displayed good teaching performance.

No detailed description on how the items in the instruments were constructed and validated.

Study Findings NotesThe Influence of the Certified Vocational Teachers’ Competence, Years of Service, & Socioeconomic Background towards Teachers’ Work Discipline in Pati RegencyAuthor: Sutikno. Source: Varia Pendidikan, Vol.22, No.1, Juni 2010.

All independent variables (certified teachers’ competence, years of experience and socioeconomic background) have a positive significant influence towards work discipline.

The teachers usually selected to be certified had already been good teachers, incl. work discipline.

Unclear elements of teacher competence were quantified.

The performance assessment of certified teachers using professional teachers’ competence written in Law No. 14/2005. Authors: Arif Firdausi Ananda, Amat Mukhadis, Andoko. Source: Teknologi dan Kejuruan, Vol. 33, No. 1, Februari 2010: 65-80.

The certified teachers’ competence in general is good (the second top out of five levels of assessment criteria).

Unclear how observation instrument was constructed.

Unclear how the assessors were selected, trained, & how observations were conducted (assessors were teachers’ supervisors, colleagues [certified or non-certified?], and students.)

Teacher Certification in Indonesia: A Confusion of Means and EndsAuthors: Mohamad Fahmi, Achmad Maulana, & Arief Anshory Yusuf.Source: Center for Economics and Development Studies, Padjadjaran University, July 2011

Teacher certification may have no impact on students’ achievement (education quality).

Teacher certification may have improved teachers’ living standard.

A solid paper!

Review the renumeration mechanism if it is not working to improve quality.

The mechanism should be based on criteria on the performance in improving quality (e.g., test scores)

• Unclear and inconclusive (3 positive/good, 3 no impacts); notes.

• Academic upgrading & welfare improvement do not show any clear impact on quality improvement: teacher knowledge, student learning outcomes (World Bank, 2012).

Lessons Learned

Figure 6. The causal effects of teacher certification on student learning (World Bank, 2012)

Teacher Certification does not make an impact on student learning!

A clear improvement in academic qualifications (World Bank, 2012).

Teachers with bachelor’s degree performed only marginally better in subject matter tests (World Bank, 2012).

Academic upgrading does not make an impact on teacher quality! (subject matter knowledge)

Figure 7. the growth of the number of Indonesian teachers with a bachelor’s degree from 2006-2010

Figure 8. the growth of the number of Indonesian teachers with a bachelor’s degree from 2006-2010

• More fundamental problems with Indonesian teachers:

✓ the institutional culture - the civil servant mentality (Bjork, 2005).

✓ the teacher-centered approach, rote learning as a common practice (Zulfikar, 2009).

• Change is not easy (Lim, Pagram & Nastiti, 2009).

• Question: How does the teacher certification policy tackle these problems?

Past studies on Indonesian teachers

A glimpse of hope?

• Welfare improvement is a huge part of the program: 91% of the program cost is for professional allowance. Is it worth it?

• The incentive structure embedded in the policy has attracted more students to enroll in teacher education programs and more university graduates to enter the teaching force (USAID, 2009; World Bank, 2010).

• More research and easier access (database, data management).

• Scholarly work: better language use, improved methodology.

A side but equally powerful note:Research on Indonesian Education

is in a deep crisis: more quantity & more quality!

Good policies are costly, bad policies cost more!

Iwan Syahril

syahrili@msu.edu

Special thanks to the Educational Policy Program at Michigan State University for its support in this presentation.