Advance English Language Study

Mid-Term Examination

Student Name : Khairunnisa Fitri

NIM : 21210140000015
Program : Magister Program
Lecturer : Dr. H. Atiq Susilo, M.A., Maya Defianty, Ph.D., Ummi Kultsum, Ph.D.
Article Title : Enhancing English Teachers’ Professional Development: Portraying a
Mentoring Program.
Researcher : Zuliati Rohmah
Pub. Year : 2018
Publisher : Teflin Journal

As one of the key determinants of students’ success, teachers need the continuous
development of knowledge and skills, including the preparation to meet the educational demands
(Bold et al., 2017). For this reason, effective development practices are needed, especially for
novice teachers who need assistance in improving these aspects. The typical development
practice is considered to limit teachers’ control of their learning. Thus, mentoring practice as one
of the new alternatives of CPD proposed several benefits to support teachers’ autonomy in
deciding their ways of learning (Callhan, 2016). The article “Enhancing English Teachers’
Professional Development: Portraying a Mentoring Program” by Zuliati Rohmah depicted the
implementation of mentoring practice and explored mentees’ perception of mentoring sessions.
While this study laid out a clear and beneficial result, it still has several limitations related to the
instrument, the mentor, and the researcher’s statement.

Rohmah employed two instruments to collect the data from 20 English training
institutions consisting of nine novice teachers and 11 senior teachers. The first instrument is the
observation of monthly workshops, teaching activities, and pre-and post-teaching conferences
between teachers and mentors. The second is the questionnaire for nine new teachers to obtain
their perception of mentors, the quality of the program, and what improvement they made after
joining the program. The data from the questionnaire is served in percentages, while the data
from observation is described written. The study revealed that teachers positively respond to the
mentoring practice and feel the improvement of their confidence through mentoring practice

The study gives a significant result as it can contribute to teachers and government as
well. With this study, the government or schools may consider adopting and widely developing
mentoring practices as the opportunity for teachers to improve their quality. Furthermore, the
mentoring program seems to have been widely discussed by other researchers worldwide for its
significant benefits, especially for novice teachers. Such as the study conducted for mentors-
mentee in Hongkong by Lai (2010), the study of mentoring as a supportive way for novice
teachers in China (Li, 2016), and the study on the effect of mentoring programs on teachers in
Kenya (2020). Those studies show that mentoring programs positively impact novice teachers
and are regarded as supportive ways to improve teachers’ skills.

However, the study has limitations related to the instrument, the mentor, and the
researcher's statement. The first is related to the instrument; classroom observation and
questionnaire. Rohmah stated that several columns in the observation sheet consisted of
activities, positive aspects, things to improve, and comments. However, she does not state the
basis of choosing these items on the observation sheet. A similar case was also found on
constructing a questionnaire to find out the mentee's perception. It consists of ten multiple-choice
items to know mentees' perception of mentors, the program's quality, and what they had
improved during the program practice. Nevertheless, Rohma does not explain whether the
questionnaire item is adopted, adapted, or developed. It is essential to explain to support the
researcher's reliability of the instrument—such a study conducted by Sokhira (2018) that
investigates benefits of mentoring programs teachers' professional development. Sokhira uses the
questionnaire that distributes to the lecture. She also states that the questionnaire is constructed
based on the theory of mentoring and supervising described in the literature review.

The second is related to the mentor. Rohma Zuliati said that she takes part as the mentor
for nine novice teachers. However, she does not explain her competence to be a mentor. As she
pointed out in the introduction, “An effective mentor needs to have interpersonal skills, …….”
implying that a mentor needs to have some requirements since it is a crucial role to support
teachers learning experience (Maphalala, M.C., 2013). Concerning this, Klopf and Harrison
(1981, as cited in Anderson & Shannon, 1988) agreed that the qualification of mentors involving
experience, competency, and knowledge should be enacted to make the mentoring practice work.
However, the reviewer did not claim that the mentoring practice in this study does not work
effectively, rather than suggesting the researcher explain the reason that supports her position as
the mentor.

The third is related to the researcher's statement that has no support from other
researchers. For example, her statement on the program that the government has not adopted in
supporting novice teachers, but its' implementation mainly occurs in certain institutions and
projects. This statement needs support from other researchers or proof based on government
implementation of the program to show that it is not only the researcher's assumption. The
support is needed to guarantee the statement. Compared to the study conducted by Zifirdaus
Adnan (2018) that investigated the online mentoring system in upgrading EFL teachers' quality,
the researcher provides information about the problem of improving teachers' quality through
training programs provided by the Indonesian government. The statement is followed by a
supporting statement from the Ministry of Education and culture and other studies' findings that
make his statement more informative and trusted. Thus, the support on researcher statements
from other researchers is essential to be stated.

The study by Rohmah Zuliati has provided beneficial information related to mentoring
practice for novice teachers that result in positive progress. However, this study does not explain
the bases of instrument used for both observation activities and questionnaire of teachers'
perception on mentoring practice. The researcher also makes some statements related to
Indonesia's mentoring program, which has limited support from other findings. Moreover, the
researcher has not clearly stated the reasons that supported her position as the mentor. Therefore,
the bases of instruments, supportive theory or research findings related to the statement, and the
precise requirements for mentors can be considerations for future researchers in the same field.

References

Adnan, Z (2018). Upgrading EFL teachers' quality through an online mentoring system, an
innovative in-service training model: The case of Indonesia. Humaniora, vol. 30, no. 2.

Anderson, E. M., & Shannon, A. L. (1988). Toward a conceptualization of mentoring. Journal

of Teacher Education, 39(1), 38–42. https://doi.org/10.1177/002248718803900109.
Bold T, Filmer D, Martin G, Molina E, Stacy B, Rockmore C, Wane W (2017). Enrolment
without learning: Teacher effort, knowledge and skill in primary schools in Africa.
Journal of Economics Perspectives 31(4):185-20.

Edith, Lai. (2010). Getting in step to improve the quality of in ‐service teacher learning through
mentoring. Professional Development in Education, 36 (3), 443-469, DOI:
https://doi.org/10.1080/19415250903115962.

Li, Ru. (2016). Mentoring as a supportive way for novice teachers in foreign language teacher
development: A case study in an ethnic college in China. Journal of Language Teaching
and Research, academypublication.com, 7 (2), 318-327.

M.C. Maphalala (2013) Understanding the role of mentor teachers during teaching practice
session. International Journal of Educational Sciences, 5 (2), 123-130, DOI:
10.1080/09751122.2013.11890069.

Muraya, Daniel & Wairimu, Esther. (2020). Effects of teacher mentoring on the classroom
practices of lower grade primary school teachers in Kwale County, Kenya. Educational
Research and Reviews. 15 (8), 473-486, https://eric.ed.gov/?id=EJ1264238.

Vinde, S.L. (2018). Utilizing “Mentoring and supervision” program as a way to increase lectures
teaching professionalism. English Education: English Journal, 6 (1), 52-66.