D BING 1107160 Chapter4

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Sitti Nurfaidah, 2016

EFL PRE-SERVICE TEACHERS’ REFLECTION: A CASE STUDY IN AN INDONESIAN INSTRUCTIONAL CONTEXT

Universitas Pendidikan Indonesia| repository.upi.edu | perpustakaan.upi.edu CHAPTER IV

FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION

Chapter III has provided elaboration on how this study was approached, the theoretical frameworks were deployed, and data were gathered and analyzed. Although data for this study were collected from four sources: journal entries,

videotaped PSTs‘ teachings, stimulated recalls, and interviews, the presentation of

findings in this chapter is based on journal entries and transcripts of stimulated recall as the primary sources of data. Meanwhile, the PSTs‘ videotaped teachings were used as the information for further elaboration in stimulated recall protocols,

and transcripts of interviews were used to enrinch the PSTs‘ profile relative to their reflections on their teaching practices.

This section, therefore, focuses on the presentation and discussion of the

findings based on each PST‘s case, as also called within-case analysis, followed by cross-case analysis through the presentation of similarities and differences found among the participants. The flow of findings will be discussed from the elements of reflection, the level of reflection, and the issues/concerns in the EFL

PSTs‘ reflections regarding their reflective practice during the field teaching

program. A summary of findings is also presented at the end of the chapter.

4.1 Findings

4.1.1 Elements of Reflection

In terms of elements of reflection, the findings of this study indicated that the

participants‘ reflections demonstrated the reflective phases or reflection elements as proposed by Dewey (1933) and Loughran (1996). All elements of reflection in the first reflective phase, as argued by Loughran (1996), i.e. suggestions, problem, and hypothesis, were identified in all participants‘ data. The second reflective

phase, i.e. reasoning and testing, also emerged in the participants‘ data.

The participants‘ data from reflective teaching journals and interviews yielded

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Universitas Pendidikan Indonesia| repository.upi.edu | perpustakaan.upi.edu

over time probably, as Loughran (1996) suggests, indicate the development of an

individual‘s reflective processes.

From both data, teaching journals and interviews during stimulated protocol session, only few of the cycles reached to testing the hypothesis. It is probably

closely related to the PSTs‘ limited experience and knowledge on teaching world so that commonly they have suggestions in mind, or problems to be solved and come with the hypothesis and/or reasoning but could not figure out what to do in the future time. Also there is not much they could say in their reflections due to their limited exposure to the real teaching experience.

In the following section, the presentation of the findings with regard to elements of reflection will be divided into two parts. First, the result of analysis will be presented on individual-based case, or also known as within-case analysis.

In so doing, each participant‘s uniqueness will be explored and each PST‘s

progress in developing reflective process will be covered. Second, each of PST‘s data will be compared and contrasted in cross-case analysis section in order to see the significant similarities and differences in their elements of reflection.

4.1.1.1 Within-case Analysis

In this section, the results of analysis will be presented on individual-based

case in order to explore each PST‘s uniqueness and to cover each participant‘s

progress in their reflectivity.

4.1.1.1.1 PST 1

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In PST 1‘s data, all elements of reflection were identified indicating the

development of her reflection process. Overall, as illustrated by Figure 4.1, PST

1‘s overview of elements of reflection found in her journal entries reflects her process of reflection which took place during the field teaching program. The most frequent occurring element was suggestions, yielding with total fifteen occurrences in all of her teaching journal entries. Yielding with total eight occurrences, reasoning was placed the second and the rest, problem, hypothesis

and testing, were revealed equally, each yielded with total seven occurrences, in her reflection process as detected in her teaching entries. In addition, during the stimulated recall protocol, all elements of reflection emerged throughout the

process of digging into PST 1‘s reflections of her teaching. The reflective phase of

PST 1‘s reflection process is recapitulated in Table 4.1. Henceforth, Entry #1 and the like represent reflective teaching journal entries submitted by the PSTs in

which they reflected their field teaching experiences pertinent to each PST‘s

concerns, while SR represents the PSTs‘ reflections during the stimulated recall sessions.

Table 4.1 Recap of PST 1’s elements of reflection in reflective teaching journal entries and stimulated recall session

Overall, total occurrences of PST 1‘s reflective phases as indicated from her

reflective teaching journal entries and stimulated recall session, as illustrated in Table 4.1, yielded with suggestions as the most frequent occurring element, followed by reasoning, problem, and testing as the second, third and fourth occurrences respectively. The least frequent element emerged in her data was

hypothesis.

Occurrence in PST 1

Suggestions Problem Hypothesis Reasoning Testing

Entry #1 1 1 - - -

Entry #2 1 2 - - -

Entry #3 1 - 1 1 -

Entry #4 3 2 2 1 2

Entry #5 2 1 2 2 2

Entry #6 4 1 2 2 3

Entry #7 2 - - 1 -

Entry #8 1 - - 1 -

Total in RTJ 15 7 7 8 7

Total in SR 3 4 1 4 3

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Figure 4.1 PST 1’s trend of elements of reflection in reflective teaching journal entries and stimulated recall session

As Figure 4.1 illustrates the trend from PST 1‘s data, in journal Entry #1 and #2, PST 1 showed typical development of reflection of a novice teacher as she only focused on exploring some suggestions, such as comparing the theory about teaching she got and the real practice she found during her observation week at the host school, and the problems she faced, such as her fear that the students might not want to accept her teaching delivery. The following entries, however, as indicated in journal Entry #3, #4, #5, and #6, revealed further development in her reflection process as she involved all of the elements of reflection. In the last two entries, as shown in journal Entry #7 and #8, suggestions and reasoning were the only elements explored while the other three were absent. In her case, the absence of problem, hypothesis, and testing does not mean her reflection process ceased to develop. Instead, she indicated another further development in reflectivity as she came with more elaborative justification for the suggestions that crossed her minds.

The following is presentation of selected extracts of findings in PST 1‘s reflective teaching journals and transcripts of interview during stimulated recall protocol session. appropriate action, or even structures and restructures classroom activities

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(Dewey, 1933; Loughran, 1996). In all PST 1‘s entries of teaching journals and during stimulated recall session, suggestions were never absent in her reflective cycle process. Besides problem, this phase most of the time became PST 1‘s point of departure in her reflection.

Figure 4.2 Frequency of suggestions’ occurrence in the PST 1’s data of reflective teaching journal entries and stimulated recall session

Figure 4.2 demonstrates overall frequency of PST 1‘s suggestions throughout her reflective teaching journal entries and transcript of stimulated recall interview. It indicates a trend towards the development of reflective process in PST 1‘s teaching practice during the field teaching program. As the program went on, the use of suggestions became more explored and realized by PST 1.

In the following vignette, PST 1 believed that her teaching and learning process was already right on the track, as she experienced in her Microteaching class, only that when she evaluated the teaching media she used, a suggestion

occurred to her that more efforts need to be done in preparing interesting teaching

media, which she believed will eventually attract the students‘ attention.

―I think that my teaching philosophy agrees with what I experienced in Microteaching class. The

thing to be changed is that I should be more creative with my teaching media so that the students

will be more interested in my classroom.‖ (S#6_RTJ-PST1_Entry #4)

Such efforts to make the students more engaged in her classroom were also confirmed during the stimulated protocol as PST 1 conveyed that in preparation for exercising speaking, she provided many teaching resources, for example, more models and samples of dialogues in order to help the students exercise their pronunciation as revealed in the following extract of transcript:

―So I took other dialogues and had them exercise their dialogues in pairs. That way could help their

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Universitas Pendidikan Indonesia| repository.upi.edu | perpustakaan.upi.edu 4.1.1.1.1.2 Problem

In a reflective cycle, as mentioned in Chapter II, Section 2.3.2, problem in a teaching and learning process accounts for the perplexing and/or worrisome situation which prevents the teacher to further his/her activities in the classroom in order to stop and think about the difficulty encountered. In doing so, the teacher re-inspects the problematic situation and therefore intellectualizes it to be solved (Dewey, 1933; Loughran, 1996). In all of PST 1‘s teaching journal entries,

problem emerged only in entries 1, 2, 4, 5, and 6. Unlike suggestions, this element of reflection does not commonly occur due to its categorization of complexities of problematic situation (Dewey, 1933; Loughran, 1996) which is more complex than issues or worries emerged as suggestions.

Figure 4.3 Frequency of problem’soccurrence in the PST 1’s data of reflective teaching journal entries and stimulated recall session

Figure 4.3 illustrates overall frequency of PST 1‘s occurring problem

throughout her reflective teaching journal entries and transcript of stimulated recall session. This phase sometimes became PST 1‘s point of departure in her reflective teaching journals. During the stimulated recall session, however, the increase in this element indicates that when guided and stimulated properly, the reflective phase did exist in her teaching reflection process.

The following vignette shows how problems were intellectualized in order to be solved. PST 1 encountered some problems during her classroom interaction with the students.

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In these perplexing situations, PST 1 dealt with an annoying student, which she tried to tame by posing him some questions to answer, and a technical problem with the electrical device she used in delivering her teaching material. The In-focus was in trouble and there was no way she could handle the material clearly.

Such problematic situations were also resonated with the clarification from PST 1 during the interview session in stimulated protocol that:

―Well, basically they are attentive when I was teaching them, only that sometimes they were quite

noisy and would only stop when I ordered them to be quiet. Maybe because the class is small and basically they are willing to learn. Well, I think the problem in teaching this unit was in speaking activity when I asked them to make dialogue. It was difficult for them even if I had asked them to

work in pair. The good thing was they were willing to do speaking practice. They didn‘t refuse to

be assigned to practice in front of the classroom. Only that they lack expression [in terms of tone and stressing]. I mean, I asked them to speak naturally but their expression was still flat. Also they

still relied on the text [when doing the dialogue].‖ (P#3_SR-PST1)

PST 1 reflected that in general she was having problems with the noisy classroom that most of the time needed her attention in order to be shut down. She also

encountered the poor students‘ ability in composing dialogue although they were assigned to work in pairs. Besides that, natural expression was also become an issue because she believed that the students should speak in natural way, requiring their attention to the tone and stress in appropriate way. However, the bright side of her students was they have motivation to learn despite their lack in comprehending what being delivered to them.

4.1.1.1.1.3 Hypothesis

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time the hypothesis being formulated is followed with putting the assumption into test, whether overtly or covertly (Dewey, 1933).

Figure 4.4 Frequency of hypothesis’occurrence in the PST 1’s data of reflective teaching journal entries and stimulated recall session

Figure 4.4 shows overall frequency of PST 1‘s occurring hypothesis

throughout her reflective teaching journal entries and transcript of stimulated recall interview. This phase indicates PST 1‘s attention to her teaching and learning process in the classroom as she could identify what seemed to work well or not. The trend towards the development of reflective process in PST 1‘s teaching practice during the field teaching program suggests the realization of

hypothesis as the field teaching program went on.

The following vignette portrays how hypothesis emerged during one of the teaching episodes. As for PST 1, her hypothesis occurred to her as she noted that:

―I came to the classroom alone, without my partner. I don‘t know where she is for she never showed up while our mentor teacher had suggested that we work in team. Well, actually I was a bit

irritated because she never came as the controller. Basically, today‘s teaching and learning process

was fun. Some of the students were noisy but they wanted to go with the lesson. They were calmer when Miss R came to do videotaping which made me think that it is important to work in team so that one can be the teacher and the other could play the role of controlling the students. In that way, the students could be prevented from being noisy, wandering around, going in and out of the classroom, chattering, etc. At the end of the class I reflected that being a teacher is tiring and a hard

work.‖ (H#1_RTJ-PST1_Entry #3)

The abovementioned excerpt illustrates how the supposition of working in team became measurable as PST 1 assumed that the presence of other people apart from the teacher in the classroom would help the classroom management by looking at the classroom situation when Miss R came.

During the stimulated protocol, PST 1 held a tentative judgement when she reflected about her teaching instruction and the root of the problem pertaining to a certain activity. She said:

―When I asked them to make a short dialogue using the expression, they were confused. Then I

gave them a situation and sample of dialogue but probably they still didn‘t quite understand. Perhaps because of my instruction, well, I don‘t know, perhaps it‘s my shortcoming. Probably it‘s

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better for me to give them the simplest model they can understand before asking them for further

practice.‖ (H#1_SR-PST1)

4.1.1.1.1.4 Reasoning

Reasoning, as also elaborated in Chapter II, Section 2.3.4, as Loughran (1996) noted in his study, became the element of reflection which took place in the second stages of reflective phases. The incorporation of reasoning followed by testing showed the high possibility of an increased degree of sophistication in the process of reflection. Throughout PST 1‘s entries of teaching journals, reasoning

placed the second most frequent element of reflection revealed in PST 1‘s reflection. It was only absent in two first entries of her journals, which indicates

the process of reflection did exist in PST 1‘s teaching and learning process during

the field teaching program.

Figure 4.5 Frequency of reasoning’soccurrence in the PST 1’s data of reflective teaching journal entries and stimulated recall session

Figure 4.5 presents overall frequency of PST 1‘s occurring of reasoning

throughout her reflective teaching journal entries and transcript of stimulated recall interview. This element of reflection most of the time emerged when PST provided the justification for the root of the problem, the justification for taking a suggestion into her mind and acted it out, as well as justification relative to the hypothesis being made and the testing being implemented or imaginatively

implemented. This phase indicates PST 1‘s ability to move to the second phase of

reflective cycle in the reflection process (Loughran, 1996). Proper guidance and stimulation proved to be effective in revealing this reflective phase during the stimulated recall session.

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justified her reasons for claiming that the teaching was still teacher-centered as the following:

―The teaching and learning process was still dominated by me. Why? Because when I asked them to

discuss in group they still highly relied on me by asking about what the passage discussed. They were still not aware of the benefit of discussion with their friends. They were more sure that the right answer is from the teacher. However, I helped them by mingling around guiding each group

and checked the things they didn‘t understand.‖ (R#2_RTJ-PST1_Entry #4)

When being confirmed during the stimulated recall session about her justification for choosing a certain text in a teaching episode and claiming that the text was not easy to chew for the students, she argued:

―A bit difficult for them, Mam, because they were still confused. I have explained over and over

again but they were still confused. Well, I shouldn‘t have given them some situations, rather I should have just given them one situation. I mean, I should have given the topic along with the situation, while in this meeting I gave them two situations instead of one. Maybe they were confused. I then asked them to choose the situation they preferred but they got more and more

confused… Well, I should have given them only one topic so that it could be more focused.‖

(R#1_SR-PST1)

Meanwhile, when reflecting about the field teaching program at the end of the program implementation, PST 1 reflected in her last teaching journal entry that:

―There are many stories and impressions during my assignment as a student teacher at the school.

First, I will talk about the school environment. The first time I was assigned at the school I felt

happy because it is still part of the campus area. But the thing that didn‘t impress me much was that I couldn‘t feel I was in a new situation. Second, all the teachers and administrative staffs were very

kind. They really welcomed us, only that we didn‘t spend much time socializing and having small talk with them. Probably because we just came to the school only during our teaching time so that

we didn‘t see them much. Meanwhile, my mentor teacher was always there so that I didn‘t find any

difficulties consulting my lesson plan. Next, I have good impression of the students. They are respectful of the teacher. [Whenever we met outside of the classroom] they always said hi and shook our hands. But some of them overacted a bit. Apart from inside the classroom, I seldom had

small talk with them. Maybe because there are not many students in the school that I didn‘t really

feel emotional relationship with them. Moreover, even though the school is located in two separate locations, but I‘ve never visited the other one. I just know the situation from my friends who were scheduled to teach there. They said that the situation of the school where I was scheduled is better

than theirs because the students‘ motivation to learn was better here.‖ (R#3_RTJ-PST1_Entry #8)

The above extract demonstrates that having spent a considerable amount of time during the field teaching program in the host school, the student teacher justified her impressions by drawing a holistic reasoning of the way she felt, welcomed, treated, and blended with the school atmosphere and its elements.

4.1.1.1.1.5 Testing

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which can be executed openly or imaginatively (Farrell, 2012). As Loughran (1996) notes, reasoning requires the teacher understand the natural consequences which might follow an action. In this way, direct observation or experimental testing need to be considered because the consequences may not always lead to confirmation of the hypothesis being tested. In search of testing in the PSTs‘

reflection process, it was found that in general, the PSTs were likely to apply imaginative testing in their teaching reflection.

Figure 4.6 Frequency of testing’soccurrence in the PST 1’s data of reflective teaching journal entries and stimulated recall session

For PST 1, as Figure 4.6 reveals, testing only began to spring into her reflection at the fourth meeting of her teaching. Throughout her teaching journal entries, testing was revealed in her fourth, fifth, and sixth entries. It was absent in the first three entries of her journals, indicating her process of reflection which still in the first cycle of the reflective process, which is considered as normal in the development of PST‘s reflection process (Loughran, 1996). This element mostly accompanied the occurring hypothesis. This phase also indicates her ability to move to the second phase of reflective cycle in the reflection process, as evident during stimulated recall session.

The following vignette illustrates how PST 1 was confronted with some problems and suggestions and along with her observation, she came with some ideas to test her working hypotheses in the following meetings.

―When I asked some of the students to read aloud, most of them mispronounced some words, they

even misspelled the words I asked them to spell. For the next meetings, I then decide to teach them how to pronounce the word before reading. In terms of classroom interaction, some students kept

going in and out of the classroom and also made some noises that ruined their classmates‘

concentration. Probably I was not too strict with the rules which lead them that way. Therefore, I have to be stricter in the future and speak louder so that I could impress them and make them follow the rule. I think that my teaching philosophy agrees with what I experienced in Microteaching class. The thing to be changed is that I should be more creative with my teaching resources so that the

students will be more interested in my classroom.‖ (T#1_RTJ-PST1_Entry #4) 0

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In this case, PST 1 thought that word pronunciation and spelling were indicative of the classroom problem. Also, she was troubled managing the classroom when some students seemed to ignore the rule during the lesson. Therefore, her imaginative testing (such as teaching pronunciation explicitly, being stricter to the students and speaking louder, as well as being more creative with teaching resources) got in way of her reflection process. Similar case also applied during her fifth and sixth meeting of teaching as noted below:

―Besides that, I will teach them how to write analytical exposition text by using mind mapping. However, since I didn‘t prepare any mind map and explaining what mind map is, they became confused and didn‘t know what to do. For the following meeting I have to prepare the media and

explain about it in detail.‖ (T#2_RTJ-PST1_Entry #5)

―My teaching technique in this meeting was mind mapping, which is appropriate in teaching writing. My only drawback today was I didn‘t prepare the media as sophisticated as I made in

Microteaching class… One of my shortcomings in this meeting was not providing the students with

vocabulary list pertaining to their writing acivity so that they were having difficulty during composing time because of their limited vocabulary. Perhaps I should provide them with related

vocabularies in order to help them write… I think this meeting‘s success was when they came with ideas for writing. However, I think I haven‘t managed to make the students understand how to make a correct sentence. Sometimes they write ―can‖ followed by ―to‖, while I have told them that it‘s

not correct. Perhaps I shouldn‘t ask them to compose a paragprah, since it‘s difficult for them.

Instead, I should focus on teaching them how to make correct sentences [before composing

activity].‖ (T#3_RTJ-PST1_Entry #6)

The foregoing extracts demonstrate how covert testing in the fifth meeting of PST

1‘s teaching became overt testing in the following meeting as she verified the hypothesis that mind map would help the students in composing activity. As the hypothesis was tested out, PST 1 found out some flaws, making her rethought about the way she prepared the teaching resources. Moreover, other covert testings also emerged in her reflection, such as providing the students with vocabulary list and focusing on teaching them how to make correct sentences before writing activity.

4.1.1.1.2 PST 2

In terms of submitted journal entries, PST 2 yielded total six teaching journals. Unlike PST 1 whose first entry was about the commencement of the program in the host school and the last one was about her reflection on the end of the program, all of her submitted journal entries were about her reflections on her teaching and learning experience in the classroom she was assigned to teach. In

PST 2‘s data, all elements of reflection were identified indicating the development

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hypothesis was also the least frequent occurring element during the stimulated recall session.

Overall, total occurrences of PST 2‘s reflective phases as indicated from the

submitted journal entries and stimulated recall session, as illustrated in Table 4.2, yielded with suggestions as the most frequently occurring element and hypothesis

as the least frequent appearing element. After suggestions, the revealed elements were problem and testing, while reasoning positioned the next occurrence.

Similar to PST 1, in journal Entry #1 and #2, PST 2 showed typical development of reflection of a novice teacher as she only focused on exploring some suggestions, such as ways to break the ice in the classroom, and the problems she faced, such as students‘ difficulty in grammar and comprehending the materials in general. In Entry #3, she showed further development of reflection as she came with justification for reviewing the previous lesson. The following entries, as indicated in journal Entry #4, #5, and #6, revealed more progress in her reflection process because she managed to reflect in a full cycle as indicated by the revelation of suggestions, problem, and hypothesis in the first phase and reasoning and testing in the second phase of the reflective cycle. This trend was more evident during the stimulated recall session as more revelation identified in the second phase. Such further progress in her reflectivity partly lent to cognitive stimulation during the interview session.

Occurrence in PST 2

Entry #1 2 3 - - -

Entry #2 1 1 - - -

Entry #3 2 1 - 1 -

Entry #4 1 - 1 1 1

Entry #5 1 1 1 1 1

Entry #6 1 1 - 1 2

Total in RTJ 8 7 2 4 4

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As illustrated by Figure 4.7, PST 2‘s overview of elements of reflection reflects her process of reflection which took place during the field teaching program. In all of her submitted journal entries, the most frequently occurring element was suggestions, yielding with total eight occurrences. Yielding with total seven occurrences, problem placed the second, while reasoning and testing, occurred equally, each yielded with total four occurrences. The least occurring element in her reflection process as detected in her teaching entries was

hypothesis, yielding with only two. The trend, however, was quite different during the stimulated recall protocol, revealing testing as the most frequently occurring element followed by reasoning, suggestions, and problem as the second, third, and fourth occurrences respectively. This is due to more stimulation given during the stimulated recall session encouraged her to reflect more on over or cover testing in her teaching experience.

4.1.1.1.2.1 Suggestions

In all of PST 2‘s teaching journal entries, suggestions were never absent in her reflective cycle process. Like PST 1, besides problem, this phase most of the time became PST 2‘s point of departure in her reflection. Figure 4.8 demonstrates

overall frequency of PST 1‘s occurring suggestions throughout her reflective teaching journal entries and transcript of stimulated recall interview.

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Entry #1 Entry #2 Entry #3 Entry #4 Entry #5 Entry #6 SR

Suggestions

Problem

Hypothesis

Reasoning

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Figure 4.8 Frequency of suggestions’ occurrence in the PST 2’s data of reflective teaching journal entries and stimulated recall session

Figure 4.8 illustrates the presence of suggestions in the development of PST

2‘s reflective process during the field teaching program. During the field teaching experience, the use of suggestions was explored and realized by PST 2. This reflective phase was mostly revealed during the stimulated recall session as she was encouraged to talk about the suggestions came to her during her teaching practice.

In the following selected vignettes, suggestions are presented. At the third meeting, for example, suggestions came to PST 2 when she examined the classroom situation. She was a bit annoyed by some inconsiderate students and some thoughts came to her mind as illustrated in the following extract:

―After the third meeting, I started to feel a bit annoyed since it seems that the students don‘t know or perhaps they don‘t want to appreciate what I have done for their class so far; from preparing and

making teaching media, preparing teaching materials and explaining in front of the class until my

mouth went dry. But now, as I‘m reflecting it, I start to think about many things like: (a) the ways to make them understand the material I‘m delivering to them because as far as I‘m concerned they still don‘t get whatever I deliver to them, (b) the ways to make them want to do the tasks that I assign

them to do, or (c) maybe they‘re bored with the way I teach since I always use teaching media

which I put on the whiteboard and pair worktechnique.‖ (S#4_RTJ-PST2_Entry #3)

In this way, PST 2, during her reflection-on-action after the class dismissal, thought deeply about how to deal with the students who she felt did not quite welcome her in their classroom. As she reflected, she examined some things such as the way to make them understand the material, the appropriate instruction she could use in order to make the students willing to face the tasks given to them, and the consideration that perhaps the source of the problem was her instead of the students.

In other occasion, when reviewing one of her teaching episodes during the stimulated recall session, PST 2 acknowledged that she kept what her lecturer, Mr. H, told them in the Microteaching class that a certain case, like failure to execute

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the lesson plan well as planned beforehand, would more likely to happen in the real classroom as she experienced during her teaching practice. She recalled that:

―The students in this classroom are also in trouble when it comes to grammar as they couldn‘t assemble even a good sentence containing a subject. It‘s sooooo difficult to them. That‘s why when

I talked to the mentor teacher, I said: Mam, it’s impossible to reach the stated objective as planned

when the students’ ability is far below the standard, even worse, I think, it’s close to minus. So, they have nothing at all. Then I remembered what Mr. H told us in Microteaching class that things like this will more likely to happen. All that we need is we have to identify what to be the students‘ difficulties and not to be stuck with the lesson plan because once we are determined with what have

been planned in it, nothing will work out.‖ (S#1_SR-PST2)

In this way, PST 2, in almost all her teaching sessions, decided to keep examining

her students‘ progress and made possible modifications on her lesson plans during the teaching and learning sessions so that the students‘ need could be covered.

4.1.1.1.2.2 Problem

In all of PST 2‘s teaching journal entries, problem emerged mostly in the first journal entry. Afterwards, in entries 2, 3, 5, and 6, she reflected about the problems she encountered in her classroom less. The only part when problem was absent in her reflection was in entry 4. Like PST 1, this reflective phase also sometimes became PST 2‘s point of departure in her reflective teaching journals.

Figure 4.9 Frequency of problem’s occurrence in the PST 2’s data of reflective teaching journal entries and stimulated recall session

As Figure 4.9 illustrates, the frequently occurring problem throughout PST 2‘s reflective teaching journal entries and transcript of stimulated recall session signals her concern over the problem she came across in the real classroom. As a novice teacher, this element is sometimes explored more than the other elements due to its easiness to spot during the classroom interaction.

In the following selected extracts, PST 2 experienced some problems in different ways. She encountered difficulties in her first teaching session.

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Classroom management, teacher-students interaction, as well as lesson plan implementation are of paramount problems in her classroom.

―Actually I was very nervous ever since the commencement day of our field teaching. But when I

walked into the classroom, I took a deep breath. After greeting the students, I tried to implement my lesson plan. At the beginning, everything went smoothly. They seemed to listen to the lesson attentively. However, I realized I ended up talking to myself. Then I tried to break the silence by throwing some jokes. Some of them smiled, some even laughed out loud and some of them tried to

ask some questions.‖ (P#1_RTJ-PST2_Entry #1)

And she further continued in her teaching journal entry:

―Considering the lesson plan, I felt it didn‘t go as I planned before because whenever I asked them

to do something like understanding passages, writing, or speaking, they just kept silent. While in fact, before asking them to write or speak, I have provided them with explanation and sufficient examples using media. I found out that they are having trouble with grammar. For example, out of the two sentences I asked them to make, none of them was correct. At last, I ended up explaining grammar rather than focusing on what I have planned before. So, my lesson plan didn‘t work at

all.‖ (P#2_RTJ-PST2_Entry #1)

As her first real teaching experience, PST 2 could not come with alternatives in managing the problems she was exposed to. To her realization, at least she could handle the situation a bit so that the students were in order but not with the lesson plan which did not go as planned.

During the interview in stimulated recall session, she confessed that the other

problem adding to the students‘ inability to complete the classroom activities and

tasks well was because their limited knowledge on grammar. She recalled that:

―That‘s the biggest problem I encountered. Because they are really in trouble in terms of grammar.

In each classroom activity, especially [when teaching] expression in speaking and when I asked them to write a simple dialogue using the given expression, having provided them with exact

similar situation, they couldn‘t make the dialogue. Well, actually they know nothing at all. Writing

was the most difficult thing to deal with during the classroom instruction because such activity would stuck due to their limited knowledge. They have no vocabulary storage at all when they were asked to write. They would keep asking Mam, what is it in English if we want to say this.... They

kept asking, asking, and asking.‖ (P#1_SR-PST2)

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Universitas Pendidikan Indonesia| repository.upi.edu | perpustakaan.upi.edu 4.1.1.1.2.3 Hypothesis

In all of PST 2‘s teaching journal entries, hypothesis was only revealed later in entries 4 and 5. As shown in Figure 4.7 earlier, in her reflection process, this element definitely occurred hand-in-hand with the appearance of testing because the hypothesis being formulated were then followed with either overt or covert testing. This phase indicates PST 2‘s attention to her teaching and learning process in the classroom as she could identify what seemed to work well or not. Figure 4.10 deals with overall frequency of PST 2‘s occurring hypothesis

throughout her reflective teaching journal entries and transcript of stimulated recall interview.

Figure 4.10 Frequency of hypothesis’ occurrence in the PST 2’s data of reflective teaching journal entries and stimulated recall session

The following vignette demonstrates how hypothesis emerged during her teaching practices. As for PST 2, after revealing the importance of English to the students, she managed to persuade them to be more open about their problems. Having shared the stories, she came into some hypothetical conclusions as the following:

―Thank God… After I explained to them about [learning and the importance of] English, they

started to be open about their problem in learning English. Most of them are having troubles in grammar and limited vocabularies so that they are facing difficulties in speaking, writing, listening, even reading that they cannot comprehend the passages. So, it is difficult. Besides that, they said that their English teacher at the school did not care whether they understand or not what the teacher was delivering and she kept going. Also, they acknowledged that I spoke too fast in front of the classroom while all this time whenever I asked them whether I spoke too fast or not, they just said

that it was fine.‖ (H#1_RTJ-PST2_Entry #4)

The aforementioned reflection clearly shows how PST 2 transformed the information she gathered from the students into tenable suppositions and working

hypotheses. She assumed that the students‘ difficulty in learning English might be due to the students‘ problems in grammar and vocabularies, the subject teacher‘s ignorance of the students‘ need, and the PST‘s pace in the classroom in delivering

the material. 0

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In other occasion, when developing plan for the next teaching by considering

the students‘ difficulty in composing a text, PST 2 would like to test her

hypothesis that by providing worksheet to the students, it would help them write what the syllabus required. She reflected:

―For the next meeting, the lesson would be analytical exposition text which writing as part of the taught skill. At the previous meeting when teaching report text, I found out that the students

couldn‘t write. Ideally, they should be able to produce a report text or analytical exposition text. However, in fact, they are struggling with composing simple present sentences, let alone composing a text. Since I have to teach analytical exposition text as required in the syllabus, I tried to make

worksheet (guidance)which could help the students compose a text.‖ (H#2_RTJ-PST2_Entry #5)

Further, when reflecting about the problems she faced during teaching a topic, she hypothesized as follows:

―I think it‘s not difficult to transfer [the knowledge]. But it seems they‘re quite difficult to understand. Probably because they‘re not accustomed to my teaching that so far it‘s only about 20% or 30% of the material they could understand.‖ (H#1_SR-PST2)

The extract of transcript above signifies that during the first times of her teaching,

PST 2 found the level of the students‘ comprehension on the teaching material she

delivered was very low. Judging from her teaching frequency, she tentatively concluded that probably it was about spending more time and familiarizing her teaching instructions with the students that would root out the problems.

4.1.1.1.2.4 Reasoning

In a similar fashion to PST 1, this reflective phase only appeared from PST

2‘s third entry onwards, indicating the process of reflection did exist in her teaching and learning process during the field teaching program. In order to be able to move to the second phase of reflective cycle in the reflection process, proper guidance and stimulation need to be effectively addressed to PST 2, as the encouragement towards this phase during stimulated recall session proved to be able to reveal her justification the most.

Figure 4.11 Frequency of reasoning’occurrence in the PST 2’s data of reflective teaching journal entries and stimulated recall session

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As Figure 4.11 illustrates, reasoning occurred in PST 2‘s process of reflection

from the third entry onwords. In journal Entry #3, PST 2 justified that due to technical problem with power supply which hindered her from using overhead projector, she decided to review the previous lesson. In journal Entry #4, she accounted for why she claimed it was a bad day. Moreover, in journal Entry #5, she explained why she was concerned with the students‘ low motivation in learning English, which then she found out the answer to such situation as she revealed in journal Entry #6.

The following vignette illustrates how the reasoning took place when PST 2 was caught up in the problem of her students‘ lack of motivation as reflected in the following excerpt:

―I‘m really concerned with the students because they are very lazy, no motivation to learn at all.

Sometimes I think Oh my God. What should I do? From the first time I taught them using whatever teaching resources, they showed no motivation to learn. I think reflecting my own teaching is not

enough because I‘m not sure whether the teaching method which I believe appropriate also applies

to the other teachers. Moreover, my mentor teacher never came into my classroom to give feedback

to me.‖ (R#2_RTJ-PST2_Entry #5)

In this case, PST 2 realized that the students‘ lack of motivation hindered the

teaching and learning process in better way. She was reasoning through her ideas of using any kinds of teaching resources possible to attract the students‘ attention. By linking the teaching experiences and observations, she concluded that many

factors might contribute to such situation, among them were the students‘

difficulties with grammar, limited vocabularies and lack of awareness of English learning as resonated in the following reasoning of giving activities to the students:

―That‘s the biggest problem I encountered. Because they are really in trouble in terms of grammar.

In each classroom activity, especially [when teaching] expression in speaking and when I asked them to write a simple dialogue using the given expression, having provided them with exact

similar situation, they couldn‘t make the dialogue. Well, actually they know nothing at all. Writing

was the most difficult thing to deal with during the classroom instruction because such activity would stuck due to their limited knowledge. They have no vocabulary storage at all when they were asked to write. They would keep asking Mam, what is it in English if we want to say this...?. They kept asking, asking, and asking. When they kept asking like that, I said Besides having problem with grammar, not having dictionaries with you also put you into difficulty of making the dialogue. Now feel free to ask me the words that you don’t understand so that you can write. So, they started asking. When they were done, the other problem was arranging the words into sentences. They asked Mam, is it correct if the sentence is like this? Another student asked me Mam, what do we say in English when we ask someone’s condition or greet someone? But he asked the whole part of the dialogue. I said Well, you are not learning then because you ask me to translate everything, and you just copy what I say.‖ (R#1_SR-PST2)

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However, in order to deal with the situation, PST 2 kept looking for ways to

get into the students‘ mind and finding out the root cause of their learning difficulties. She further reflected:

―Thank God… After I explained to them about [learning and the importance of] English, they

started to be open about their problem in learning English. Most of them are having troubles in grammar and limited vocabularies so that they are facing difficulties in speaking, writing, listening, even reading that they cannot comprehend the passages. So, it is difficult. Besides that, they said that their English teacher at the school did not care whether they understand or not what the teacher was delivering and she kept going. Also, they acknowledged that I spoke too fast in front of the classroom while all this time whenever I asked them whether I spoke too fast or not, they just said that it was fine.‖ (R#3_RTJ-PST2_Entry #6)

4.1.1.1.2.5 Testing

For PST 2, testing only began to spring into her reflection at the fourth meeting of her teaching. Throughout her teaching journal entries, testing was revealed in her fourth, fifth, and sixth entries. It was absent in the first three entries of her journals, indicating her process of reflection which still in the first cycle of the reflective process. This element of reflection accompanied the occurrence of hypothesis.

Figure 4.12 Frequency of testing’soccurrence in the PST 2’s data of reflective teaching journal entries and stimulated recall session

As Figure 4.12 presents, overall frequency of PST 2‘s occurring testing

throughout her reflective teaching journal entries and transcript of stimulated recall interview. The increase occurrence of this element during stimulated recall session indicates PST 2‘s great potential to develop more to the second phase of reflective cycle in the reflection process.

The following selected extracts of journal entries show how, in PST 2‘s case, testing emerged in her reflection process for three times. The first testing occurred to her reflection process as shown in the following vignette:

―In my teaching, at first I thought Oh, teaching a small class and quiet class is fun. My second teaching was speaking and still the continuation of the first meeting about expressing satisfaction and dissatisfaction. After giving them examples, I asked them to make a dialogue using the

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expressions but no one did it. They said that they didn‘t know how to arrange sentences. Then I

ended up explaining about subject and verb in a sentence because they were really in trouble with structure, even worse they didn‘t know how to make a sentence (they couldn‘t differentiate noun, adjective, and verb). Therefore, I gave them homework, writing a list of 5 adjectives, 5 nouns, and 5 verbs. I planned to ask them to make sentences from the list before giving them the new material, report text. Disappointingly, no one did the homework while I thought the assignment was not that

difficult because they didn‘t have to think hard working on it.‖ (T#1_RTJ-PST2_Entry #2)

In this case, PST 2 came across a problematic situation which she tried to solve by giving homework to the students assuming that the additional assignment would help the students differentiate the noun, adjective and verb. However, the overt testing to the hypothesis was negated as the students ended up not doing the assigned task at home.

Next, at the other teaching session she felt quite dispirited, as her class seemed not to show any progress at all. She reflected as in the following extract:

―At the fourth meeting, as I said before [in the previous journal entry], I just planned to review the

teaching material that I have delivered. I didn‘t prepare any teaching resources because I was

confused what kind of resources would be interesting for these students. Therefore, since I just

wanted to review, I didn‘t prepare the lesson plan nor resources. I was a bit stressed just by thinking

of the students. I thought I was losing my spirit. But when I was in the classroom, there was still plenty of time left after the review. While checking the students‘ answers on the task I assigned them for the review, an idea crossed my mind. It was playing a game which related to the review. I

asked each student to write one sentence out of their task‘s answer on the whiteboard then we checked the grammar. Those who wrote wrong sentences were punished to compete in a spelling game. Those who could spell faster and without mistakes were given extra marks and the rest who did mistakes were given another punishment to write another sentence and having other students

who had correct answers checked them. Thank God… With some games the class was alive today.

However, I realized that a teacher should not go teaching without a lesson plan or resources. But at least I happened to know that they like games while moments before I thought that they might not

suit to games (because they are shy and a bit passive) but they‘re not. The worst thing from today‘s

class was when some of the students were being punished by doing the task I gave them, the other

students didn‘t pay attention at all. Even worse, a student was busily chattered with his friend from

the adjoining classroom in front of the classroom door while his friends were busy doing the task. For the next meeting, first, I plan to give them game which requires all of them to be active because

I‘m afraid if not so, the passive ones will just wander around without paying attention. Second, I

plan to ask my partner to observe me teaching so that she could give positive contribution to my

classroom instruction.‖ (T#2_RTJ-PST2_Entry #4)

PST 2 reflected how she put the suggestions, which came into her mind when she was almost at the end of her spirit, into overt testing and then turned out to be successful in engaging all the students with the review activity.

4.1.1.1.3 PST 3

In terms of submitted reflective teaching journals, PST 3 yielded fewer entries than PST 1 and PST 2, but the length of the content was almost the same amount

as that of PST 1‘s. Until the end of the field teaching program, she submitted total

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of the program in the host school, and the rest of the entries were her reflections on the teaching experience in the classroom she was assigned to teach.

In PST 3‘s data, all elements of reflection were identified indicating the development of her reflection process. Overall, as illustrated by Figure 4.13, PST 3‘s overview of elements of reflection reflects her process of reflection which took place during the field teaching program. In all of her submitted journal entries, the most frequently occurring element was suggestions, yielding with total ten occurrences. Yielding with total five occurrences, reasoning placed the second, while problem and hypothesis, occurred the third and the fourth, yielded with total four and two occurrences respectively. The only absent element in her reflection process as detected in her teaching entries was testing. The trend, however, like PST 2, was quite different during the stimulated recall protocol, revealing testing as the most frequently occurring element followed by hypothesis

and reasoning in equal way, while suggestions and problem, also equally, as the least. Similar to the trend found in her journal entries, hypothesis was also the least frequently occurring element during the stimulated recall session.

Overall, total occurrences of PST 3‘s reflective phases as indicated from the submitted journal entries and stimulated recall session, as illustrated in Table 4.3, yielded with suggestions as the most frequently occurring element and testing as the least frequent appearance. After suggestions, the next frequently appearances were followed by reasoning and problem, while hypothesis positioned the next occurrence.

Occurrence in PST 3

Entry #1 1 4 1 2 -

Entry #2 3 - - - -

Entry #3 3 - - 2 -

Entry #4 1 - 1 1 -

Entry #5 2 - - - -

Total in RTJ 10 4 2 5 -

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As Figure 4.13 illustrates the trend from PST 3‘s data, in all entries and during stimulated recall suggestions characterize her reflective process. On the contrary, testing only occurred during the stimulated recall session when she was encouraged to reflect more. In her case, the absence of some elements throughout her reflective process indicated her need of more cognitive stimulation which could make her reflections bear full reflective cycle .

4.1.1.1.3.1 Suggestions

In all of PST 3‘s teaching journal entries, suggestions were never absent in her reflective cycle process. Like PST 1 and 2, this phase most of the time became PST 3‘s point of departure in her reflection. Figure 4.14 demonstrates overall frequency of PST 3‘s occurring suggestions throughout her reflective teaching journal entries and transcript of stimulated recall interview.

Figure 4.14 Frequency of suggestions’ occurrence in the PST 3’s data of reflective teaching journal entries and stimulated recall session

Figure 4.14 demonstrates the presence of suggestions in the development of PST 3‘s reflective process during the field teaching program. During the field teaching experience, the use of suggestions was explored and realized by PST 3.

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Entry #1 Entry #2 Entry #3 Entry #4 Entry #5 SR

Suggestions

Problem

Hypothesis

Reasoning

Testing

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This reflective phase was mostly revealed in Entry #2 and Entry #3 as she reflected more about ideas in teaching and handling the teaching materials.

The following selected extracts of journal entries show how PST 3 dealt with

suggestions. When teaching about report text, for example, she was confronted by a situation, making her reconsidered about what she should do when she realized something was not working with the students. Since reviewing session at the

beginning of the class did not work, she decided to brainstorm that day‘s topic. Also, when she realized that her instruction regarding the following activity still puzzled the students when she distributed the passages, she then decided to give more explanations in order that the students understand what to do with the text on their hands. Suggestions occurred to her whenever she paused, stopped, and thought about some possible solutions to whatever problems she encountered during this teaching episode.

―I began the class with reviewing the previous week‘s lesson. I posed some questions but no one

gave any answer. Then I decided to brainstorm them. However, to my disappointment, the class showed no mutual interaction between the teacher and the students as I expected. Then I tried to make the atmosphere more enjoyable and make them more relieved. Still, I failed to make them enjoy the classroom. Nevertheless, I continued the lesson by explaining about report text. After talking about what report text was, I distributed pieces of paper containing sample of report text and asked them to circle the nouns and the verbs as identified in the text. They seemed confused. They

didn‘t know what to do with the text. Realizing that situation, I tried to explain again about what

they have to do with the text.‖ (S#3_RTJ-PST3_Entry #2)

During the stimulated recall protocol, PST 3 also revealed clearly how

suggestions came to her after her first attempts in the classroon did not go as planned. She noted:

―Since my first attempts to put my ideas and creativities in the lesson plan, in the hope to make

them active, did not go well, then I anticipated such things from happening by putting another method in the following lesson plan. Perhaps the first method I used in the classroom made them bored. I then planned to use cooperative learning, another method. But it also failed, the students were becoming more passive. So, what I did in this class, back then asking them to write individually, was not on my lesson plan. Not planned at all. It‘s because I just tired myself out

explaining things while they don‘t get it. So, this activity came to me when I found them didn‘t

respond to what I said. It came naturally. I had them come in front of the whiteboard one by one to

write. In that way, they‘re becoming active and I could see their competence.‖ (S#1_SR-PST3)

4.1.1.1.3.2 Problem

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Figure 4.15 Frequency of problem’s occurrence in the PST 3’s data of reflective teaching journal entries and stimulated recall session

Figure 4.15 illustrates overall frequency of PST 3‘s occurring problem

throughout her reflective teaching journal entries and transcript of stimulated recall session. Problem only occurred in her first entry and during stimulated recall session. In Entry #1, she explored about the problems she encountered during the first days in the school where she was assigned to teach.

The following selected extracts of journal entries show how PST 3 largely reflected about the administrative problem they encountered in their first day of the field teaching program. She thought that she and her friends have given bad first impression to the mentor teacher due to some mistakes triggered by an administrative problem. The following vignette illustrates her reflection on the problem:

―The first day of the field teaching program at the school was fun at the beginning but then it turned out to be a bad day because our coordinator was incompetent. And the deal we had in terms of the distribution of mentor teachers which was at first closed well, since it had been approved by the principal, also turned out to be ruined. When we met our mentor teacher, Mr. LU, he asked for the formal letter from campus stating about our assignment at the school containing the names of the

students involved in the program but we said we didn‘t have it. He gave bad response [to our

answer]. He said that we were not officially legal to teach at the school because we couldn‘t present

the proof. Then we rushed to English Language Education Department at campus to get the letter but no one was at the office. We decided to wait for sometime then called one of the administrative staffs in order to track the letter. A few minutes later he appeared and gave it to us. Then we rushed back to the school and gave the letter to our mentor teacher. When he opened it we found out that it was decided from our campus that the mentor teachers only consisted two teachers for the program, which then followed by regrouping us into two groups. As a result, my mentor teacher was

switched into Mrs. A [not Mr. LU anymore].‖ (P#1_RTJ-PST3_Entry #1)

Moreover, during the observation week, she kept encountering problem with her mentor teacher, Mrs. A, as she recalled:

―On the third day of classroom observation, everything failed and the things stated in the program

book were in contrast to what I experienced. I experienced a great challenge and I felt a sudden change in myself. Why? Because I used to be afraid of talking to my lecturers or people I recently meet. I had never talked to them unless they asked me something. But that day my mouth opened all of a sudden for the first time and explained to our mentor teacher the reason behind the

classroom observation since she did not respond well to my friends‘ explanation on it, even worse

she bitterly criticized us. As I was listening to them arguing, my heart beat faster and I said to myself that I am a student-teacher. I must not be seen stupid and useless. So I had to speak and

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