Speaker
Description
There has always been a discrepancy in technology application among teachers in rural and urban schools. Therefore, professional development (PD) relevant to teachers in rural schools can improve the application of technology in their classrooms. This research aims to formulate a PD proposal for technology applications in rural schools by exploring teachers’ preferences for PD and the challenges they experienced when using technology in teaching. For this purpose, 36 rural school English in-service teachers who have participated in technology-related PD in Indonesia were interviewed to determine how PD can be conducted to help them improve their knowledge of technology application. The interview also looked at the potential problems that prevented these teachers from using technology in their classrooms. The interviews were analyzed using thematic analysis, drawing on Desimone’s framework of five core features of teacher PD. The results show that the PD programs these teachers attended were not relevant to the rural school context, and many factors prevented them from applying what they learned in PD to their classrooms. They proposed a PD program where they learn technology tools applicable in rural schools. They proposed that this PD does not take too much time, such as once a week, but it should be long-term, and their use of technology during and after the program should be monitored and supported when necessary. Based on the results of this study, we recommend a PD program relevant to these teachers, taking into account their preferences and challenges in using technology in their school context.
Biography
Faisal Mustafa is a final-year doctoral student at the University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia. His doctoral research topic concerns the impact of Indonesian compulsory professional development on teachers’ TPACK and classroom practice. He is a lecturer at Universitas Syiah Kuala, one of the leading state universities in Indonesia. He completed his undergraduate study in English language teaching at Universitas Syiah Kuala (Indonesia) in 2008 and his postgraduate study in linguistics at the University of Manchester (The United Kingdom) in 2011. During his career, he has published his research in internationally reputable journals and collaborated with other international academicians, and he is also a leading editor at one of the international journals managed by Universitas Syiah Kuala. He has also been actively involved as a reviewer at local and international journals. His research interests cover English language teaching methodology, technology integration in English language instruction, qualitative and quantitative research methods, language assessment, and linguistics.
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