Teacher Development in Mastering the Teaching Materials and Understanding Student Characteristics before and after Receiving Certification Allowance

摘要

This paper argues that teacher certification does not fully enable teachers to either develop their teaching competence or comprehend their understanding of student characteristics. They both are the basic competence for a professional teacher. The authors argue that to master teaching strategies is paramount than to make a lesson plan and evaluate teaching performance. Understanding student characteristic means that teachers understand the unique and different potential possessed by each student. This can be conducted by involving parents in solving student problems. In fact, parents are often not involved in their children issues at school. The authors also highlight that the professionalism of certified teachers is often blurred by how they were occupied with administration job completion as the compulsory requirement of the allowance. As a result, some teachers are not well-prepared and do not know their student parents.