Project News

In the new Lesson Study sites, it has been 1 year since they started activities. The 1st Evaluation Workshops were conducted in each site to share the participation rate, progress and problems since they started Lesson Study through MGMP (Subject Teacher Support Group). In the workshop, representatives (mainly facilitators) from each Home Base (a group of 10-20 neighboring schools formed to hold MGMP), Provincial Education Department, City/District Education Department, supervisors of school education, LPMP (Institute for Quality Assurance for Teachers) trainers, lecturers from partner universities, Balai Diklat (Regional Training Centers of the Ministry of Religious Affairs) trainers, Provincial Religious Affairs Offices, and City/District Affairs Religious Offices participated.

Representatives from each Home Base presented the change in participation rate, progress since they started LS activities, and problems they had. The common progresses in all new sites were; “collegiality among teachers has grown and they became more open to receive advice from other teachers”, “teachers got used to having open classes and more and more teachers want to open their class”, “Relationship between teachers and principals became closer”, “ability to plan a lesson has improved”, “teachers came to be able to observe more in detail during open classes”, “students got used to being observed”, and “students got used to having group works and presentation in the class”. It seems that teachers have become confident and their professionalism has risen in 1 year.

There are also some problems. It was shared among all participants that teachers from private schools, especially private madrasah schools hardly participate in MGMP activities. This is because private schools have small number of teachers, and they have to teach even on the MGMP day, or many of them teach at more than 1 school. Another issue was about the transportation cost. In North Minahasa District, schools are scattered and there are also many schools in islands. Thus, transportation cost is higher than other sites, so that it is difficult for each school to cover the cost for teachers to join MGMP activities.

JICA Experts worried that if teachers have to present in front of many participants, they only presented in a diplomatic manner. However, that was not the case. They actually presented their opinions frankly, such as “it is difficult for schools to cover all the transportation cost. Can Education Department give more financial support?”, and “the people who should have been assigned for monitoring MGMP such as LPMP trainers, university lecturers, and Balai Diklat trainers rarely come to our MGMP. What is going on?” The workshop was a good opportunity to share problems with all stakeholders and some solutions were also discussed.

Inspired by high motivation and expectation of teachers and City/District Education Departments towards Lesson Study, JICA Experts also reconfirmed their responsibility to support them so that their efforts actually would result in improvement of the quality of classes. Improvement of the frequency of monitoring and supervision capacity by LPMP trainers, university lectures, and Balai Diklat trainers is also an issue, and measures to increase the number of trainers who truly understand Lesson Study are needed.

Presentation by the representative of Home Base 2 in North Minahasa.

Opening ceremony of the Evaluation Workshop in Banjarbaru City.

Presentation by the representative of Home Base 4 in Padang City.