AN ANALYSIS OF MENTOR TEACHER’S WRITTEN FEEDBACK IN
TEACHING PRACTICUM
THESIS
Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirement for the Degree of
Sarjana Pendidikan
Daniel Setiadi Cahyo Nugroho 112008020
ENGLISH DEPARTMENT
FACULTY OF LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE
SATYA WACANA CHRISTIAN UNIVERSITY
ii
AN ANALYSIS OF MENTOR TEACHER’S WRITTEN FEEDBACK IN
TEACHING PRACTICUM
THESIS
Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirement for the Degree of
Sarjana Pendidikan
Daniel Setiadi Cahyo Nugroho 112008020
ENGLISH DEPARTMENT
FACULTY OF LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE
SATYA WACANA CHRISTIAN UNIVERSITY
iii
AN ANALYSIS OF MENTOR TEACHER’S WRITTEN FEEDBACK IN
TEACHING PRACTICUM
THESIS
Submitted in Partial Fulfillment
of the Requirements for the Degree of
Sarjana Pendidikan
Daniel Setiadi Cahyo Nugroho
112008020
Approved by:
Martha Nandari, M.A. Prof. Dr. Gusti Astika, M.A.
iv
COPYRIGHT STATEMENT
This thesis contains no such material as has been submitted for examination in any course or accepted for the fulfillment of any degree or diploma in any university. To the best of my knowledge and my belief, this contains no material previously published or written by any other person except where due reference is made in the text.
Copyright@ 2013. Daniel Setiadi Cahyo Nugroho and Martha Nandari, M.A.
All rights reserved. No part of this thesis may be reproduced by any means without the permission of at least one of the copyright owners or the English Department, Faculty of Language and Literature, Satya Wacana University, Salatiga.
v
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Name : Daniel Setiadi Cahyo Nugroho Student ID Number : 112008020
Study Program : English Education Faculty : Language and Literature Kind of Work : Undergraduate Thesis
In developing my knowledge, I agree to provide SWCU with a non-exclusive royalty free right for my intellectual property and the contents therein entitled:
AN ANALYSIS OF MENTOR TEACHER’S WRITTEN FEEDBACK IN
TEACHING PRACTICUM
along with any pertinent equipment.
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Made in : Salatiga
Date : 30 August 2013
Verified by signee,
Daniel Setiadi Cahyo Nugroho
Approved by
Thesis Supervisor Thesis Examiner
1
AN ANALYSIS OF MENTOR TEACHER’S WRITTEN FEEDBACK IN
TEACHING PRACTICUM
Abstract
The study was conducted to find out the weaknesses of the student-teachers of the English Department at Satya Wacana Christian University. The participants of this study were the student-teachers who did teaching practicum in Satya Wacana Christian High School Salatiga in the second semester of 2012/2013. The data of this study were obtained by collecting the written feedback from the mentor teacher. The written feedback was analyzed based on eight aspects of teaching evaluation: preparation, teaching materials, language use, communication skills, lesson presentation/teaching technique, classroom management, use of teaching aid, and mastery of the materials. The result of this study showed that most of the student-teachers of the English Department had weaknesses in managing classroom, teaching technique, and designing teaching material. Some of them were still weak in communication skills, using teaching aids, and mastering the material. Only few of them were weak in language use and preparation. The result of the study can be used as an evaluation for the student-teachers to see whether they have qualified skills in teaching and what they need to improve their teaching skills. This research is also important for the English Department to evaluate their success in equipping their students with good teaching skills. Then, they can use this evaluation to create a good educational system in their study program in order to create qualified teachers.
Keywords: written feedback, student-teacher, and weakness.
Introduction
Education is believed as an important thing in human’s life since a good education will
lead people to a better life. When people have high education, it will be easier for them to get
a job. That is why education becomes a main need of many people nowadays. Many people
compete in getting a good education. A good education itself is influenced by two aspects,
namely teaching and learning.
Teaching is believed to be one of the most important things in education. It is shown by
government’s policies for teachers to improve quality of education (Muijs & Reynolds, 2008;
Thompson, G. Geer, & B. Geer, 2004) so teachers have a big role. They have to teach their
students in a good way. In other words, teachers should have a good teaching skill. Sowden
2
Teacher as person is coming to be recognized as the determining factor in the teaching
process, just as the learner as the person has been recognized as the key to successful
leaning.(p.308)
The English department in the Faculty of Language and Literature of Satya Wacana
Christian University is one of departments which create English teachers. In this faculty, the
students learn how to be a good English teacher. There are many subjects that equip the
students to be an English teacher later. In the first year of their study, the students have to
learn about the basic of English like grammar and also the four basic skills, listening,
speaking, reading and writing. Later they learn about teaching methodology and strategy in
Teaching Learning Strategy and Teaching English as Foreign Language course. These
courses give them skills in teaching English. The students also have to take other subjects that
train them to be a teacher like Introduction to Language Education, Curriculum and Material
Development, and Language Assessment which teach them about how to assess the students
when they become a teacher later. After taking all the courses, they have Microteaching
where they have to do some mini teaching before practicing the teaching skills in a real
school. In Microteaching, they teach their own friends and get feedback from the teacher.
Here they also learn how to teach before doing teaching practicum in a real school. After
passing Microteaching, they can take Teaching Practicum.
Teaching practice is the preparation of student-teachers for teaching by practical
training. Here, the student-teachers can practice teaching methods, teaching strategies,
teaching principles, teaching techniques and practical training and exercise of different
activities of daily school life (Gujjar, Naoreen, & Saifi, 2010). Greenberg, Pomerance, and
Walsh (2008) found that teaching practicum is the most important part of new teacher’s
3
course where the students have to apply what they have learned in the previous courses. The
purpose of this program is to prepare the students to be well-trained English teachers. In
Teaching Practicum, the students of the English Department have to teach the real students in
a school. The students who do the teaching practicum are called student-teachers. Before
doing the teaching practicum as it is mentioned earlier, the student-teachers have to take
prerequisite courses like Introduction to Language Education, Teaching Learning Strategy,
Teaching English as Foreign Language, Curriculum and Material Development, Language
Assessment, and also Microteaching classes. In Teaching Practicum, the student-teachers
teach in real classroom and interact directly with the students. After teaching, the
student-teachers have an evaluation with the mentor teacher. They are given both oral and written
feedback about their performance in class.
Doing teaching practicum is not easy. In the previous study, Gürbüz(2006) found that
there were some weaknesses done by student-teachers in teaching practicum based on a case
study in Turkey. She found that 30 student-teachers in Turkey still had weaknesses in
managing time, classroom management, giving instruction, and also their grammar. From the
situation in Turkey, I have some questions about student-teachers of the English department
at Satya Wacana Christian University. How about the student-teachers of the English
Department at Satya Wacana Christian University? Has the English department of Satya
Wacana Christian University equipped their students to be good English teachers? What do
the mentor teachers’ of the school think about their performance? And have the student
-teachers fulfilled the requirements to be a good teacher? These questions lead me to make my
research question:
What are the weaknesses of the English Department student-teachers need to be
4
This research is meant to find out the performance of the student-teachers of the
English Department at Satya Wacana Christian Universtity who did the teaching practicum in
Satya Wacana Christian High School in the second semester of 2012/2013. In this research,
the weaknesses of the student-teachers of English Department at Satya Wacana Christian
University in teaching can be identified through the mentor teacher’s written feedback. This
research can be used as an evaluation for the student-teachers to see whether they have
qualified skills in teaching and what they need to improve in their teaching skills. This
research is also important for the English Department to see whether they are successful in
equipping their students with good teaching skill. Then, they can use this evaluation to create
a good educational system in their faculty in order to create a qualified teacher.
Theoretical Framework
To be a good teacher, there are some criteria that have to be done by the
student-teachers. Nawawi as cited by Barizi (2010) said that a good teacher is not only standing in
front of the class and delivering the materials. A teacher also has responsibility in helping the
students to develop themselves. Kane and Temple as cited by Murphy, Delli, & Edwards
(2004), found that most teachers believed that the characteristic of a good educator included
the elements of character, skills, mastery of discipline, professional growth, commitment to
mission, contrasting perspective, diversity, the “all around” teacher, the enormity of the task,
and the definition of professional characteristic. While Rubio (2009) said that,
Effective teacher does not only have a deep content knowledge, they teach to promote
and enhance learning. Besides, they know how to manage, not only their knowledge,
but also the classroom and the students in the terms of discipline, work, interaction
between teacher-students-students, how to give instruction, and how to assess and
5
Rubio (2010) stated further that there are 11 aspects that the student-teachers need to
possess to be an effective teacher. Those aspects are
Content Knowledge
These requirements of effective teacher should be possessed by student-teachers of the
English Department. The student-teachers have learned about teaching skills in the
prerequisite course such as Introduction to Language Education, Teaching Learning Strategy,
Teaching English as Foreign Language, Curriculum and Material Development, and
Language Assessment. In the teaching practicum, the student-teachers have to practice all the
skill in the real classroom. The student-teachers’ performances are assessed by the mentor
teacher. The assessment aspects include:
1. Preparation
Based on teaching evaluation rubric, preparation in teaching practicum includes making
the lesson plan and doing consultation with the mentor teacher. Preparing the lesson is a
crucial aspect of effective teaching (Kyriacou, 2009). Kyriacou (2009) also mentioned
that with good preparation and planning, teachers will know how to run the lesson well.
They know how to start and end the lesson. They also know how to end one activity and
move to the next smoothly. Having a good planning also enables the teachers to put their
6 2. Teaching Materials
Based on the teaching evaluation rubric, teaching materials include every materials used
in teaching that can help the students in practicing language skills such as reading text,
recording, and exercise. The student-teachers should prepare appropriate material for the
level of the students. The student-teachers also have to design interesting material.
According to Kyriacou (2009), there are three elements that teacher should notice. First,
whether the lesson suits students’ abilities and interests. Second, whether the work is
challenging and instructive. Third, whether every single students in the classroom is
accommodated.
3. Language Use
In teaching practicum evaluation rubric, the student-teachers are supposed to be excellent
in using language include appropriate use of Indonesian and/or English. They have to be
good in code switching–mixing. Code switching is the relatively quick switching from
one language to another language (Norrish, 1997). Besides, the student-teachers have to
avoid mispronunciation in explaining that do not interfere with students understanding.
4. Communication skills
Communication according to Khattak, Yaqoob, and Basri
(http://www.hec.gov.pk/InsideHEC/Divisions/LearningInnovation/Documents/Learning%
20Portal/NAHE/communication%20skills%20module.pdf) is conveying message to other
people clearly and unambiguously both verbally and non-verbally. Communication is
successful only when both the speaker and the listener reach a common understanding
regarding the same information as a result of the communication process. Carvalho
(http://web.phys.ksu.edu/icpe/Publications/teach2/Pessoa.pdf) states that teachers should
have a good communication skill to ensure their students get the intended objective of the
7
(2010) adds that bad communication will not make students understand the explanations
of the lesson and the instruction from the teacher. In Teaching Practicum evaluation
rubric, communication skills include voice, eye contact, gesture, and body movement. To
be a good teacher, the student-teachers should have good communication skills. They
should have good volume and control of voice for all the students in the classroom so the
students can hear clearly. They also have to make eye contact and spread equally to all
students in the classroom. Besides, they should also make natural movement around the
class and relevant gestures and cues.
5. Lesson Presentation / Teaching Technique
To be a good English teacher, the student-teachers are supposed to be good in presenting
the lesson. Based on teaching practicum evaluation rubric, their teaching should be
interesting, clear and well-organized. They have to provide various and interesting
activities for their students. They are able to use interesting way to end one activity and
move to the next activity. According to Kyriacou (2009), a good teacher should be good
in transition. Kyriacou (2009) adds that there are three elements in transition. First, the
establishment of attention at the start of the lesson. Second, sensitivity in deciding when
to move from one activity to the next. Third, maintaining students’ attention when
moving between activities. Not only good in transition, teachers are also supposed to use
appropriate pace of teaching. Pace refers to the speed of teaching. It concerns the idea of
keeping up the rate of events in the lesson so that the students are kept involved and
attentive (Kyriacou, 2009).
6. Classroom Management
According to Martin, Yin, and Baldwin as cited in Rosas & West (2009), classroom
management generally refers to the teacher’s effort to organize the activity in the
8
management is seen as high priority for teachers to promote academic success (Rubio,
2010; Rosas & West, 2009). According to teaching practicum rubric, a good classroom
management means that the teacher gives attention and opportunity to all students
equally, including the students who sit at the back row. The teacher also gives the
students a lot of opportunity to get involved in the lesson and motivate them to follow the
lesson enthusiastically. In addition, Friedman as cited in Rosas & West (2009) stated that
poor classroom management often causes misbehavior that interferes with teaching and
learning, and procedures tremendous stress.
7. Use of Teaching Aids
According to Klaus
(http://www.ehow.com/about_6317487_definition-teaching-aids.html) teaching aids are tools used by the teachers to help their students to understand
more. Teaching aids can be visually, aurally, or both. In teaching practicum rubric, the
student-teachers should be excellent in using teaching aids. The teaching aids should
support the teaching and learning process and help the students to understand the lesson.
The teaching aids used should be able to be seen or heard clearly by all students in the
class. According to Gibbs and Habesaw (1992), teaching aids will help the teacher to
have a good interaction with the students. It also takes pressures off both the teacher and
the students. As addition, teaching aids also help the teacher in explaining about abstract
thing so that the students can understand more about the materials explained.
8. Mastery of the Materials
Mastering the teaching materials is the important requirement that a good teacher should
fulfill (Rubio, 2010). Reynolds and Muijs as cited in Rubio (2010), considered a good
mastery of materials responses to the spontaneous and demanding students questioning.
Moreover, with a good mastery of materials, the teacher can give the students additional
9
In teaching practicum, the student-teachers are given feedback from mentor teacher both
written and oral. The feedback is based on the student-teachers’ performance when they do
the teaching, by looking at the rubric of each aspect.
The study Context of the study
The setting of this research is Satya Wacana Christian High School which is a
well-known school located in Salatiga, Central Java, Indonesia. Satya Wacana Christian High
School is one of teaching practicum sites for student-teachers of the English Department of
Satya Wacana Christian University. The students of this high school are familiar with
English. Furthermore, in English class, the students are not allowed to use other languages
besides English. This school is one of teaching practicum sites for the student- teachers of the
English department. The student-teachers are obliged to teach all the classes of the first grade
and the second grade.
Method of Research
This study was a descriptive qualitative study to find out the weakness of the
student-teachers of the English Department at Satya Wacana Christian University in teaching.
Participants
The participants of the study were selected from student-teachers of the English
Department at Satya Wacana Christian University and the mentor teacher of Satya Wacana
Christian High School. All of the student-teachers were students who did the teaching
practicum in Satya Wacana Christian High School in the second semester of 2012/2013. This
10
first two teaching were done in pairs and for the third until sixth teaching were done
individually. Their performance was assessed by the mentor teacher.
Data Collection
In order to answer the research question, the data was collected through the written
feedback given by the mentor teacher to the student-teachers for the third until sixth teaching.
The reason of choosing the written feedback for the third until sixth teaching was that in the
third until sixth teaching, the student-teachers did the teaching individually. The problems
from each student-teacher could be seen clearly when they did the teaching individually. The
reason of choosing written feedback was that written feedback was the only feedback that the
mentor teacher could give while the student-teachers were teaching. Moreover, not all the
teachers got oral feedback from mentor teacher. The feedback was based on
student-teachers’ performance when they were teaching the students. The feedback contained all the
teaching practicum evaluation aspect: preparation, teaching materials, language use,
communication skills, lesson presentation/teaching technique, classroom management, use of
teaching aid, and mastery of the materials. In order to enrich the data, I observed the
performance of the student-teachers when they were teaching. The observation was based on
teaching practicum evaluation aspects which was excluded the preparation since it could not
be observed in class.
Analysis
This study used qualitative data. The data were collected by copying the written
feedback from the mentor teacher from the third until the sixth teaching. After collecting the
data, the next step was coding. In coding, the data was analyzed by focusing at the weakness
of every student-teacher and categorized based on eight aspects of teaching evaluation; 1)
11
Presentation / Teaching Technique, 6) Classroom Management, 7) Use of Teaching Aids, and
8) Mastery of the Materials. The next step was done by looking at the common weakness
from all the student-teachers which came up when the student-teachers did their teaching.
Findings and Discussion
This section discusses the student-teachers’ weaknesses. The analysis showed that the
student-teachers still had some weaknesses in some aspects. The aspects were based on the
teaching evaluation in the teaching practicum.
1. Classroom Management
According to teaching evaluation rubric, a good classroom management means that the
teacher gives attention and opportunity to all students equally, including the students who sit
at the back row. The teacher also should give the students a lot of opportunity to get involved
in the lesson and motivate them to follow the lesson enthusiastically. Since classroom
management is seen as high priority for teachers to promote academic success (Rubio, 2010;
Rosas & West, 2009), the student-teachers were supposed to have good classroom
management when they are teaching. From the mentor teacher’s written feedback, it can be
seen that almost all of the student-teachers of English department were still weak in
classroom management. They still had weaknesses in monitoring, giving attention to
students, and dealing with noisy students. According to the data in Gürbüz (2006), the same
weakness was also done by student-teachers in Turkey in which the student-teachers in
Turkey were also regarded as non-native speaker teachers.
a. Monitoring
The English Department student-teachers have weakness in monitoring the students
12
student-teachers moved around the class. She wrote, “Move around the class and monitor
your students when they were doing the fill in the blank activity.” (Student-teacher G)
A similar written feedback was also given to student-teacher B, E and I. The mentor
teacher here asked the student-teachers to move around the class to make sure that the
students really worked on the exercise and motivated them. From the feedback given, it can
be seen that the student-teachers did not move around the class and monitor the students like
they were supposed to do. It also happened when I observed one of the student-teachers of
the English Department when teaching. I noticed that the student-teachers only stood in front
of the class instead of moving around the classroom to monitor the students. Even, there was
a student-teacher who only sat all the time like what the mentor teacher wrote as the
feedback. She wrote, “Don’t sit all the time.” (Student-teacher F)
These data were contrary to what teacher should do. According to Kyriacou (2009),
teacher should monitor their students to see the progress of the lesson to ensure its success.
With monitoring, the teacher knows if their students have some difficulties or if their students
understand with the lesson.
b. Giving attention
In teaching evaluation rubric, the student-teachers were supposed to give their attention
to whole students in the class equally. But in reality, it was contrary to what was expected.
She wrote, “Pay more attention to your students who sat in the back row and unmotivated
ones.” (Student-teacher I)
A similar feedback was also given for student-teacher E. From the mentor teacher’s
written feedback above, it can be seen that the student-teachers of English Department had
weakness in giving attention to their students equally. Some of them only gave their attention
13 c. Dealing with students’ misbehavior
As Friedman (as cited in Rosas & West, 2009) said, students’ misbehavior can be the
result of poor classroom management. From the written feedback given, some
student-teachers had problem in dealing with students’ misbehavior. Some of them had problem with
noisy students as what the mentor teacher wrote for feedback. She wrote, “Please remind the
noisy students who don’t pay attention to you.” (Student-teacher D)
A similar feedback was also given to student-teacher A and C. Besides noisy students,
the student-teachers also had problem with lazy students who did not want to do the exercise
given. She wrote, “Please remind the lazy students who don’t do the activities you give.”
(Student-teacher E)
To avoid interfering in teaching, good teachers are supposed to be able to handle the
students’ misbehavior. Wolfgang (as cited in Kyriacou, 2009) suggested three approaches
that student-teachers can use in dealing with students’ misbehavior.
A non-interventionist (relationship–listening) approach based on viewing the students
as basically good, who need compassionate and empathetic support to behave well
when they misbehave.
An interactionist (confronting–contracting) approach based on viewing the students’
misbehavior as a result of an inability to manage their behavior in response to the
pressures of classroom life. Here, the teacher interacts with students to share goals
and standards and to socialize the students into self-regulating their behavior better.
An interventionist (rules and consequences) approach based on viewing good
behavior as being the result of students having a clear understanding of classroom
14 2. Teaching Technique
Based on the teaching evaluation rubric, the English Department student-teachers were
supposed to be good in presenting the lesson. Their teaching should be interesting, clear, and
well-organized. The transition between activities should be smooth. They also have to be able
to use appropriate pace in teaching. From the mentor teacher’s written feedback, it can be
seen that the student-teachers of the English Department were still weak in their teaching
technique. They had problem in teaching method, teaching pace, and transition between
activities.
a. Teaching Method
In the teaching evaluation rubric, the student-teachers were supposed to use interesting
method when teaching. Rubio (2010) said that effective teacher should use teaching method
that can help the students to achieve their goal in learning. From the mentor teacher’s written
feedback, it can be seen that many student-teachers were still weak in their teaching method.
Even, their method discouraged active students like what mentor teacher wrote as feedback
for student-teacher B. She wrote, “Find method that is not discouraging active student.”
(Student-teacher B)
Some student-teachers of the English Department were also weak in explaining the
difficult words. It can be seen from the mentor teacher’s written feedback. She wrote, “When
explaining about the difficult words, don’t use direct translation. Put the words in contextual
sentences and let the students guess the meaning.” (Student-teacher H)
A similar feedback was also given to student-teacher E and G. From the feedback, it
can be seen that the student-teachers did not fulfill what the mentor teacher expected for not
15 b. Teaching pace
Pace refers to the speed of teaching. It concerns the idea of keeping up the rate of
events in the lesson so that the students are kept being involved and attentive (Kyriacou,
2009). In the teaching evaluation rubric, the student-teachers were supposed to use
appropriate pace when teaching. But in fact, there were still some student-teachers who did
not use appropriate pace. She wrote, “Increase the speed of your teaching. Manage your time
wisely.” (Student-teacher I)
From the feedback given, it can be seen that the teaching pace of the student-teacher
was too slow. The similar feedback was also given to student-teacher A and B. Supposed to
be a good teacher, the student-teachers should use appropriate teaching pace. When teaching
pace is too slow or too fast, attention will be easily lost (Kyriacou, 2009).
c. Transition
In delivering the materials, student-teachers were also supposed to be good in ending
one activity and moving to the next activities. They have to use interesting transition between
activities and maintain the students’ attention. Looking at the mentor teacher’s written
feedback, some student-teachers were still weak in transition. She wrote, “The significant
purpose of pre-teaching is to get the students ready for the class. So, before you move on,
make sure that everyone is ready to start the lesson and join the discussion.”(Student-teacher
B)
From the feedback, it can be seen that the student-teacher did not know when to move
from one activity to another activity. It was contrary to the second element of transition
according to Kyriacou (2009) that a good teacher should be sensitive in deciding when to
16 3. Teaching Material
Based on the teaching practicum rubric, student-teachers of the English Department
should prepare appropriate material for the level of the students that can help the students in
practicing language skills. According to Kyriacou (2009), the materials of the lesson should
accommodate the students’ needs. In reality, the student-teachers could not fulfill what was
expected. She wrote, “Don’t you think that the short story is a bit too long for the students to
read?” (Student-teacher H)
From the mentor teacher’s written feedback, it can be seen that the materials that the
student-teacher gave to the students were not appropriate for the level of the students. It was
contrary to what was expected that student-teachers should provide appropriate materials for
the level of the students. Besides giving appropriate materials for the level of the students,
student-teachers should provide materials that can accommodate the students’ needs. They
should also design the material that can help the students in practicing their language skills.
In fact, some student-teacher could not design materials that can help the students in
practicing their language skills. She wrote, “You have to create questions for the students to
practice their listening before you ask them to open the book.” (Student-teacher E)
The similar feedback was also given to student-teacher A, C, and D. The mentor
teacher’s written feedback indicate that student-teachers of English Department were still
weak in designing the material that can help the students in practicing their language skills. It
was contrary to Kyriacou (2009) who said that a good teacher should accommodate the
17 4. Communication Skills
Communication skills are considered as one of the important things in teaching (Rubio,
2010). A good teacher should be able to communicate the materials to their students well.
Rubio (2010) adds that bad communication skills can make the students do not understand
the explanations and the instruction from the teacher. In teaching evaluation rubric,
communication skills include voice, eye contact, gesture, and body movement. From mentor
teacher’s written feedback, it can be seen that there were some student-teachers of the
English Department who were still weak in their communication skills especially in the
volume of voice.
To be a good teacher, student-teachers were supposed to have a good volume and
control of their voice for all the students in the classroom. From the mentor teacher’s written
feedback, it can be seen that student-teachers of English Department should speak louder
when teaching. She wrote, “Pre teaching is OK. The problem is you don’t speak loud enough
for the noisy students.” (Student-teacher B)
The similar feedback was also given to student-teacher G and H. It was contrary to
what was expected. In teaching evaluation rubric, student-teachers were expected to speak in
good volume when teaching. It enables their students in the back row to hear what the teacher
say clearly. The same condition also happened when I observed one of the student-teachers. I
sat at the back row and I could not hear her voice clearly.
5. The Use Of Teaching Aids
The student-teachers of the English Department were supposed to be excellent in using
teaching aids. In teaching evaluation rubric, the student-teachers were supposed to use
18
understand the lesson. The teaching aids should be able to be seen or heard clearly by all the
students in the class. The benefit of using aids in teaching was stated by Gibbs and Habesaw
(1992). They said that teaching aids would help the teacher to have a good interaction with
the students. It also takes pressures off both the teacher and the students. As addition,
teaching aids also help the teacher in explaining about abstract thing so that the students can
understand more about the materials explained. The same argument was also stated by Lin,
Chen and Dwyer (2006) who said that the material would be easier to be remembered when it
is delivered both verbally and visually. From the mentor teacher’s written feedback, it can be
seen that some student-teachers have used the teaching aids well but there were still some
student-teachers who used the teaching aids less well especially in using Power Point (PPT)
slides. She wrote, “Make clear PPT slides with bigger fonts and contrast background.”
(Student-teacher I)
The similar feedback was also given to student-teacher B, F and H. the feedback
indicates that some student-teachers could not use the teaching aids optimally. The PPT was
unclear because the font was small and the background was not in contrast. This was contrary
to what was expected in the teaching evaluation rubric that student-teacher should use clear
teaching aids so that all the students can see it.
6. Mastery Of Materials
Mastering the teaching materials is the important requirement that a good teacher
should fulfill (Rubio, 2010). In teaching evaluation rubric, the student-teachers were expected
to have excellent knowledge of the topic which being taught. With a good knowledge of the
materials, the teacher can give the students additional and meaningful information. Most of
the student-teachers of English Department were good in mastering the materials but there
19
“Headline: Besides omitting the “be”, also omit the article a, an, the…. (You miss these I
your explanation and exercise).” (Student-teacher H)
From the mentor teacher’s written feedback, it can be seen that the student-teacher did
not have a good content knowledge of the topic which was being taught. The student-teacher
missed some important explanation in her teaching. When I observed this student-teacher, she
looked unconfident in teaching and did not master the material well. That condition made her
students got bored and sometimes got noisy. This was in line with Kyriacou (2009) who said
teacher who could not teach well would provoke student’s misbehavior. Besides not
mastering the materials well, some student-teachers were also unable to provide the correct
answer for some exercise. It can be seen from mentor teacher’s written feedback that asked
them to be careful in giving the answer of the exercise. She wrote, “Make sure you’ve got the
correct answers. Consult with me if you’re not sure or your lesson plan should have been
equipped with the answer key when having consultation.” (Student-teacher I)
A similar feedback was also given to teacher G. It can be seen that the
student-teachers gave the wrong answer for the exercise.
7. Language Use.
In the teaching evaluation rubric, the student-teachers were supposed to be excellent in
using language when teaching. The student-teachers should have good grammar knowledge
and avoid mispronunciation that can interfere with students’ understanding. Most student
-teachers of the English Department were good in their language use but few of them were
still weak in their grammar knowledge. From nine participants, there were two
student-teachers who were weak in their grammar. She wrote, “Be careful with your grammar
20
A similar feedback was also given to student-teacher B. This problem was also found
when the writer observed student-teacher B. She did not use appropriate grammar when she
explained. For example, she used present tense when she talked about past event.
8. Preparation
Preparing the lesson is a crucial aspect of effective teaching (Kyriacou, 2009).
Kyriacou also mentioned that with good preparation and planning, teachers will know how to
run the lesson well. They know how to start and end the lesson. They also know how to end
one activity and move to the next smoothly. Having a good planning also enables the teachers
to put their creative idea for a lesson into action (Pike, 2004). Most of the student-teachers of
the English Department have prepared their teaching well. From nine participation, only one
student-teachers did not prepare the teaching well. She wrote, “You should have set
everything beforehand. (You had wasted +/- 25 minutes for fixing you problem).” (Student
-teacher I)
From the mentor teacher’s written feedback, it can be seen clearly that the student
-teacher did not prepare everything before. This was a fatal mistake which was done by the
student-teacher who was supposed to be a good teacher since preparation is considered as one
crucial aspect of effective teaching.
Conclusion
A teacher has a big role in creating a good way to teach the students. The English
Department of Satya Wacana Christian University is one of departments which create English
teachers. The students of the English Department are supposed to be good and well equipped
English Teachers. The aim of this study was to find out the weaknesses of the
21
evaluation for the English Department to improve the quality of the graduates. It was found
that most of the student-teachers of the English Department had weaknesses in classroom
management, such as monitoring the student, giving attention equally to all of the students,
and dealing with students’ misbehavior. They were also weak in teaching technique, such as
using uninteresting method, the teaching pace was too slow, and did not know when to move
from one activity to the next activity. Besides, they were also weak in designing teaching
materials. The teaching materials were not appropriate for the level of the students and could
not help the students in practicing their language skills. Some student-teachers were weak in
communication skills, using teaching aids, and mastering the materials. Only few
student-teachers were still weak in language use and preparation.
Based on the findings, the study recommended that the English Department of Satya
Wacana Christian University equips the students some additional skills in classroom
management, teaching technique, and creating appropriate teaching materials. This study has
limitation though since it was only conducted in one of the teaching practicum sites. The
focus of this study was only on the student-teachers and the mentor teacher, as the
participants. For further study, the same topic can be conducted in more than one teaching
practicum sites in order to get more data about English Department student-teachers’
weaknesses. It is also recommended that a study be conducted to find out the obstacle faced
22
Acknowledgement
First of all, I would like to thank to my Almighty God, Jesus Christ, for always blessing
me through His kindness, guidance and strength in doing my thesis. Also, I would like to
send my gratitude to my supervisor, Martha Nandari, M.A., for her supports and suggestions
in guiding me so that I could finish my thesis. I would also thank my examiner, Prof. Dr.
Gusti Astika, M.A., who is willing to read and examine my thesis.
I also thank to my father, mother and brother for their endless prayer, supports and
advices which means so much for me. Also to all my friends, Yayas, Wimbo, Vitus, Riris,
Mayang, mbak Tiwi and Icha, who always support and help me and remind me when I was
lazy to do my thesis. Lastly, I would thank to my friends in ED 2008 for giving me
unforgettable memory as long as I study in this department. Also to all my teachers in
23 Appendix
No Aspect Comment
1 Classroom management (Student A)
You have to remind noisy students.
(Student B)
Watch your students. Make sure your students really work on what you asked them to do.
(Student C)
It’s better if you bring untrophy to handle the
noisy students.
(Student D)
You need to remind the noisy students who
don’t pay attention to you.
(Student E)
Please remind the lazy students who don’t do the activity you are given.
Please pay attention to other students.
(Student F)
Don’t sit all the time.
(Student G)
Move around the class and monitor your
students when they were doing the “fill in the blank” activity.
(Student I)
Monitor and motivate the students to do their task by moving around among the group.
Try to be more in with your students. don’t be
so busy with your AVA.
Pay more attention to your students who sat in the back row and the unmotivated ones. 2 Teaching technique (Student A)
In T/F exercise, please ask the students to give the evidence.
Don’t make too many pauses
(Student B)
24
Give time limit for a task.
Give clear instruction.
Teaching pace too slow.
The significant purpose of pre teaching is to get the students ready for the class. So, before your move on, make sure that everyone is ready to start the lesson and join the discussion.
(Student E)
In T/F, please ask the students to give the evidence.
In explaining the difficult words it’s better if you use other English words or give English examples so that the students can guess the meaning rather that translate them into Indonesian.
It’s better when you play a video, you give questions to check the students’ listening.
(Student G)
Don’t give the translation directly. Put them in
context and let the students guess the meaning.
(Student H)
When explaining about the difficult words,
don’t use direct translation. Put the words in
contextual sentence and let the students guess the meaning.
(Student I)
Give clear instruction before you played the recording.
Increase the speed of your teaching. manage your time wisely.
3 Communication skill (Student B)
Don’t stand too close to your student when
he/she is answering a question. This is to encourage your student to speak louder.
Pre-teaching is ok. The problem is that you
don’t speak loud enough for the noisy students.
(Student F)
Speak louder
Don’t stand in the middle of the class / close to a group of students when you’re explaining.
25
Speak louder.
(Student I)
Don’t make unnecessary movement in front.
4 Teaching Material (Student A)
Why don’t you give comprehension questions
to the students after you show the video to the students?
(Student C)
It’s better if you give a reading text to the students to discuss.
(Student D)
You have to explain the context of the story, vocabulary, and the generic structure of the text.
(Student E)
You have to create questions for the students to practice their listening before you ask them to open the book.
(Student H)
Don’t you think that the short story is a bit too
long for the students to read? 5 The use of AVA (Student B)
PPT for the last exercise, bigger font please.
(Student G)
Avoid red fonts for all text.
Bigger fonts on your PPT.
(Student H)
Use clearer background and font color in your PPT
(Student I)
Make clear PPT slides with bigger fonts and contrast backgrounds.
6 Mastery of materials (Student G)
Be careful in answering the questions and missing words. Some answers are not correct.
(Student H)
Headline: Besides omitting the “be”, also omit
the article a, an, the…. (you miss these in your
26
(Student I)
Make sure you’ve got the correct answers. Consult with me if you’re not sure of your
lesson plan should have been equipped with the answer key when having consultation.
7 Language use (Student B)
Check grammar for instruction. (Student G)
Increase your grammar constrains in the sentences displayed.
Be careful with your grammar constrains. 8 Preparation (Student I)
27 References
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