Summary and Suggestions
Purposes of Practicum
Practice teaching is very essential for pre-service teachers, or student teachers, to try and apply the pedagogical concepts and educational theories that they have learned inside the classroom to the real world. Student teachers need to experience how to be a teacher by becoming a teacher, this is learning by doing. Without applying these theories and concepts, and relying only on the lectures inside the four walls of the classroom, the student teacher would not be able to develop his or her teaching skills.
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Being exposed to the school setting of your own country is good. You will still learn how to teach and how to become a teacher. It's still a good training ground to develop the required skills in teaching. But being exposed to a different place, that's something even better. Lucky are us who're able to experience practice teaching in a different country. We did not just learned how to teach and how to become a teacher, but we also learned how to interact with people of other cultures.
Procedures of Practicum
In this program, we were not sent to the school and teach immediately. Universitas Jambi (UNJA), the receiving university where I was sent, designed a schedule that really prepared us for our practicum.
For our first week of stay, we would only be oriented about the program, which happened in UNJA and during informal meetings in our dormitory, and introduced us to the school, both in Universitas Jambi and in our cooperating school SMPN 11.
Our second week of stay was scheduled for classroom observation, in this week, we observed our cooperating teacher and other teacher to learn the flow and the routine of teaching in Indonesia.
For our third week and until the middle part of the fourth week, that was when we tried teaching and assisting. This part was when we really taught in front of the class, made our instructional material, teaching aids, and of course, our lesson plans.
And for the rest of the fourth week, we went to the university and processed all our experiences through a seminar and an interview with our mentors/supervisors.
Outcomes of Practicum
We, the exchange students, really benefited from this teaching exchange program.
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The program helped us develop and hone our teaching skills. All the educational and pedagogical theories and concepts that we have learned when we were still studying in our home universities were applied when we started teaching in this program. The added challenge for us was to make sure that even though there's a language barrier, and the students of the country where we were sent are different from the students of our home country.Because of this, we really designed lessons that would cater the needs of our learners, and ensured that they will learn from our lessons.
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This program did not only allow us to develop our pedagogical skills, but also our interpersonal and intercultural communication skills. Because not only were we exposed to the students, but we are exposed to people whose culture are different from ours. This program allowed us to interact with them, learn from them, and experience their culture, even for just a short period of time.
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We did not only learn the skills we need for teaching, but we also learned the culture of the place where we were sent.
Challenges of Practicum
The only challenge that I encountered during the practicum was the language barrier between me and my students. Even though they are able to understand and speak English, at a certain level, they still had a hard time understanding what I was discussing in front, especially when I spoke in front of the class for a long time. Also, there were instances when I ask questions to my students, and some of the students I call cannot answer my questions because they cannot understand what I was asking them.
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Aside from that, I did not encounter any other problems because my cooperating teacher guided me from the preparation phase of my practicum until the final evaluated teaching. That's why I was so thankful for Bu Maya and the other science teachers of SMPN 11.
Overall Impression
The SEA Teacher Project is a very good exchange program for student teachers, because it allowed student teachers not only practice teaching but also to experience the educational environment of another country. This is a way for building bridges and connections among the soon to be teachers of the 21st century, because through this program, we are able to build a network of teachers, that hopefully, when the time of need comes, group together to solve the educational problems of our time.
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Exposure to other cultures also opened my eyes that the world is so rich with cultures. And there are so many things that you could learn from people of other cultures: their way of life, their beliefs, and many more.
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This program not only filled our minds with concepts about science and teaching, our body with the skills, but also our hearts with memories that we will treasure forever.
Suggestion for Future Improvement
Overall, the program seemed to be polished, because the structure is good, and so is the implementation. The only suggestions that I could give are: (1) the length of the program; and, (2) the arrangement with immigration bureaus of the participating countries.
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One month is not enough, or is too short for this program. The events are so compressed in the 4-week duration of this program. I suggest that the program be extended to 2 months or for a whole semester, so that the participants of the program would really have the full experience as exchange students. Aside from the teaching and other academic tasks, the exchange students also need to have the full cultural experience of the place where they will be sent. So an extension of the duration of the program would be my suggestion.
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And lastly, about the immigration bureaus. Some of the exchange students sent in Indonesia met a problem with the immigration officers of the country. Some exchange students were restricted to teach in front of the class alone, they must always be accompanied by their cooperating teachers, or else they might be labelled as illegal foreign workers. I suggest that SEAMEO should have an arrangement with the Immigration offices of the participating countries, and give VISA exemption to exchange students, and allow them to teach freelu and not be labelled as illegal foreign workers.