Teacher's Roles Performed at TK A in Bandung.

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ABSTRAK

Penelitian ini dilatarbelakangi oleh ketidaksadaran akan peran guru atau

teacher’s roles yang dilakukan oleh dua dari empat guru utama di sekolah TK

yang saya observasi. Rumusan masalah penelitian ini adalah (a) Peran apa yang

sering digunakan oleh dua dari empat guru di sekolah TK A di Bandung? (b)

Alasan mengapa guru-guru tersebut memainkan bermacam-macam peran? (c)

Apakah dua guru TK A tersebut sadar dan mengerti peran guru? Dalam penilitian

ini saya memakai metode kualitatif dengan cara mengobservasi dan

mewawancarai dua guru dari sekolah TK A tersebut.

Hasil penelitian membuktikan bahwa dua guru di TK A yang saya analisis

tidak sadar akan peran yang mereka mainkan. Namun, dua guru tersebut baru

mengerti tentang beberapa peran guru menurut teori Harmer dan Brown setelah

saya menjelaskannya beberapa hari sebelum sesi wawancara dan hari sebelum

wawancara dimulai. Hal ini bisa dibuktikan dengan beberapa jawaban mereka

yang hampir selaras dengan teori-teori yang saya kumpulkan dari beberapa

referensi atau sumber yang bisa dipercaya dalam bidang ini.

Masalah yang saya temukan adalah dua guru tersebut tidak menyadari

peran guru yang mereka mainkan. Hal ini bisa berdampak dalam pembelajaran di

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sekolah, seperti kurangnya metode-metode pengajaran karena guru-guru tersebut

akan terus mengulang peran-peran yang sama setiap harinya sehingga anak-anak

akan cepat merasa bosan dan proses pembelajaran tidak efektif. Untuk mengatasi

masalah tersebut, saya memberikan beberapa solusi yang bisa membantu dua guru

TK tersebut. Solusi pertama, guru-guru utama di TK tersebut dianjurkan mencari

lebih banyak informasi mengenai peran guru agar mereka lebih tahu dan lebih

mengerti tentang metode-metode pengajaran beserta fungsi-fungsinya sehingga

mereka akan menyadari peran apa yang mereka akan gunakan di kelas. Kedua,

guru-guru diharapkan tetap memakai lebih dari satu peran dalam setiap pelajaran

agar proses pembelajaran tetap menarik untuk anak-anak TK A tersebut karena

sebenarnya mereka sudah memainkan beberapa peran guru, walaupun tidak

menyadari sebelumnya.

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CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.1 Background of the Study

Teaching children in their early education, such as kindergarten, is

challenging. One of the reasons why teaching kindergarten children is even more

challenging than teaching adults is because, according to Navarro, children are

defined by their creativity and imagination, so any lesson must take this into

consideration (2014). From this statement, the writer concludes that if teachers

play suitable roles in every children’s activity, the children will be able to use

their creativity and imagination. This can be proven from some of the theories of

Harmer’s and Brown’s about teacher’s roles in Chapter Two. Besides, based on a

statement in Early Childhood Education Goals, Roles, and Curriculum Planning,

teachers of kindergarten children are expected to provide more quality learning

experiences than teachers of adults (2006, p. 5). In other words, it is important for

teachers to play their roles to teach children, so that the quality of learning process

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which means that they need to be provided with more quality in their learning

compared to adults. As O’Neill, Astington and Flavell (1992) argue, “Children’s

understanding of knowledge acquisition appears to develop considerably during

the preschool and early elementary school years” (p. 480).

However, the writer believes that there are many ways for teachers to

achieve their goals of giving quality learning experiences when teaching

kindergarten children. One of the ways is by using teacher’s roles. Lanier (1997)

describes how using teacher’s roles can help teachers to know each student as an

individual in order to comprehend his or her needs, learning style, interests, and

abilities.

On top of that, it is better for teachers to play as many roles as they can

when teaching children, every day, in every lesson in class, instead of just playing

one role. This writer’s statement can be proven from what Harrison & Kallion

(2007) argue: playing a variety of roles ensures that teachers can find ways to

adapt to children’s talents and interests, which will improve children’s learning

(pp. 74-77).

This study will try to explore the teacher’s roles in a kindergarten school

called TK A, which can make all the activities in school effective for children.

These roles are crucial because they have their own functions, which all help

teachers of children. What is more, these roles have some benefits for the

teachers. As Cox (2015), an elementary education expert, states in her education

website, one of the benefits of teacher’s roles for educators is they can be a

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concludes that if teachers can play the roles well in every lesson they teach the

children, the teachers will also become a dominant and influential figure for them,

since children at their age need a good model not only from their parents but also

from teachers at school. As Ringsmore and Kragh-Muller (2013) state, it is

important for children to see good influences from other significant people in their

everyday life (p. 25).

1.2 Statement of the Problem

Based on the topic of this thesis, the problems are formulated as follows:

1. What roles do the two kindergarten teachers play in one of the TK A

schools in Bandung?

2. What are the underlying reasons behind the two teachers playing various

roles in TK A in Bandung?

3. To what extent are the two teachers at TK A in Bandung aware of and

understand about teacher’s roles?

1.3 Purpose of the Study

The purpose of the study is to answer the following:

1. The roles that the two kindergarten teachers play in one of the TK A

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2. The reasons that the two teachers play various teacher’s roles in TK A in

Bandung.

3. The two teacher’s awareness and understanding of teacher’s roles.

1.4 Significance of the Study

The writer hopes that this study will contribute theoretical and practical

aspects of significance to kindergarten teachers about teacher’s roles, especially in

Indonesia. This study aims to explain what kind of roles that the two teachers

usually play, the reasons for kindergarten teachers to play teacher’s roles in their

school activities, and to know the two kindergarten teachers’ awareness and their

understanding of teacher’s roles. The participants’ perception in this study is

significance for kindergarten teachers, so that they will have greater awareness of

using teacher’s roles. The results of this study can be used to support the analysis

of the research. Practically, this study provides information and suggestions about

the roles of kindergarten teachers that are usually played in their classrooms at TK

A that is researched by the present writer.

1.5 Limitations of the Study

This study is only limited to the research of teacher’s roles for children aged

between four and six years old in a particular TK A in Bandung. This study

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1.6 Organization of the Study

This study is divided into five chapters. Chapter One is Introduction, which

consists of six parts, namely, Background of the Study, Statement of the Problem,

Purpose of the Study, Significance of the Study, Limitations of the Study, and

Organization of the Study. Chapter Two is Theoretical Foundation, which

presents some theories from educational experts, especially theories of teacher’s

roles from Harmer (2007) and Brown (2001), to support the writer’s analysis.

Chapter Three deals with the Research Methodology, the method that is used for

the research and how the writer collects data to complete this thesis. Chapter Four

consists of Findings and Discussion of the study. The last chapter is Chapter Five,

Conclusion and Recommendations of the writer. In addition to these chapters,

there is Bibliography, a list of the references that the writer consults for this thesis.

Lastly is Appendices, which consist of Interview Questions, Teacher’s Roles

Script in Bahasa Indonesia based on Harmer’s and Brown’s theories, Observation

of Teacher One, Observation of Teacher Two, Interview of Teacher One,

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CHAPTER FIVE

CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS

This chapter contains the conclusion and some recommendations based on

this study. The conclusion is formulated from the discussions and analysis of this

thesis. Furthermore, the recommendations are presented for the main kindergarten

teachers at TK A and further researchers.

5.1 Conclusion

As the writer has explained, the purpose of this study is to find out what roles

two of the main kindergarten teachers at TK A play for the children at school in

their teaching and other activities at school with the children, to know the

underlying reasons of the two teachers for using various roles that they play, and

the two teachers’ awareness and understanding of teacher’s roles.

Based on the results of the analysis of Teacher One, the writer concludes

some points as follows:

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First, Teacher One claims that she usually plays tutor, as she always helps the

children to do their task if they have a problem with it, while in the observation

the writer finds that controller is the most played role by her, as she often tells

children things, asks them to do something, speaks louder to get children’s

attention, and keeps the learning process going well. Therefore, the writer

concludes that Teacher One is unaware of the teacher’s roles that she plays.

However, when Teacher One’s statement about some roles are compared with

some theories that the writer has collected, her answers are match quite well with

the statements of the theories. Therefore, the writer concludes Teacher One quite

understands the theory quite well about teacher’s roles, even though the writer has

to explain prior to the interview.

Second, the observation shows that Teacher One plays various roles in

teaching some subjects to the children. What is more, Teacher One agrees that it is

important for kindergarten teachers to play various roles, as she realizes that the

characteristics of every child are different, so teachers must play various roles

every day. In addition, Teacher One says that she needs to play more than one role

to know her strengths and weaknesses.

For Teacher Two, the writer has concluded some points as follows:

First, during observation, Teacher Two is also unaware of her roles, as she

claims that she usually plays the role of facilitator, while in the observation she

plays controller the most. The reason she claims that she usually plays facilitator

is because she lets children get knowledge not only through her but also by

themselves through their friends, or through their environment while the fact is

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Teacher Two mostly tells children things, asks them to do things, and speaks

louder to get children’s attention, but allows them to be creative by letting them to

do the project by themselves. However, when Teacher Two’s statement about

some roles are compared with some theories that the writer has collected, her

answers are mostly in line with the statements of the theories. Therefore, the

writer concludes Teacher Two also understands teacher’s roles quite well, even

though the writer has to explain prior to the interview, as in the case of Teacher

One.

Secondly, Teacher Two plays various roles in the writer’s five days of

observation. She also agrees that teachers, especially kindergarten teachers,

should not stick to one role every day, as the children would become bored during

the lessons or activities.

5.2. Recommendations

Based on the analysis of this thesis, the writer proposes several

recommendations as follows:

First, the two main teachers in TK A school need to be more aware of the

teacher’s roles they play in school activities, especially in class for the children’s

learning development. Besides, they need to develop their knowledge of teacher’s

roles, as at first they do not understand teacher’s roles before the writer explains

it. However, after the writer explains teacher’s roles, Teacher One and Teacher

Two seem understand as their answers are in line with some experts that the writer

has collected in chapter two to be compared with their answers.

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Secondly, the two main teachers are recommended to keep using various

roles every day to teach children in class in order to make the learning process

more effective as well as keeping the lessons interesting for the children.

In addition, there are some recommendations for further researchers who are

interested in observing or investigating the roles of teachers in teaching. First, it is

recommended for researchers to choose different levels of teachers and different

grades of students as the writer has already observed kindergarten teachers

including children aged between four and six years old in a particular.

Last, the further researchers should do factual and specific interviews and

observation of the participants, so the research would be relevant and detailed.

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TEACHER’S ROLES PERFORMED AT TK A IN

BANDUNG

a thesis

submitted to the English Department of the Faculty of Letters

in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the ‘Sarjana’ degree

AFINA RAHMANIA PUTRI 1241047

ENGLISH DEPARTMENT

FACULTY OF LETTERS

MARANATHA CHRISTIAN UNIVERSITY

B A N D U N G

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Alhamdulillaahirabbil’aalamin. In the name of Allah, I have completed my

thesis entitled “Teacher’s Roles Performed at a TK A School in Bandung”. At this

opportunity, I would like to thank everyone who has helped me in this process of

writing this thesis.

First of all, I would like to thank Ms Cheryl Groth as supervisor I, who has

guided me from the time I started writing this thesis, and giving me invaluable

advice so that I can finish my thesis. I also wish to thank Mr Edward A. Lukman,

as supervisor II, for his constructive comments and guidance during the writing

process. This thesis would not have been completed without the months of their

valuable assistance and great encouragement.

Secondly, I would like to extend my deepest gratitude to my mother (Nia

Kantina) and father (Rudi Rohman), whose love and understanding has made all

this possible. Indeed, this writing also belongs to them because they have given

me love, understanding, and moral support. Thank you with my heartfelt sincerity.

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Last, I am also thankful to all the lecturers, administrative staff and friends of

batch 2012 in English Department, Faculty of Letters for their help. Especially

Eggy for accompanying and supporting me.

May Allah SWT bless you all.

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