An activity theory approach toward teacher professional development at scale (TPD@Scale): A case study of a teacher lear
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An activity theory approach toward teacher professional development at scale (TPD@Scale): A case study of a teacher learning center in Indonesia Cher Ping Lim1 · Juliana2 · Min Liang3 Received: 14 June 2020 / Revised: 21 October 2020 / Accepted: 22 October 2020 / Published online: 19 November 2020 © The Author(s) 2020
Abstract Continuous teacher professional development (TPD) ensures that teachers have the capacity to continually plan and implement quality teaching and learning that supports students in achieving their expected program/course learning outcomes. However, teachers’ access to quality TPD is a challenge due to geographical limitations, gender, special needs, marginalized communities, and the government’s policies, or lack of policies, regarding teachers. There are tensions between quality and equity, and cost implications that may hinder the scaling up of quality TPD programs. This paper adopts an activity theory approach to examine how a teacher learning center (TLC) in a regency of Indonesia enhances teachers’ access to quality TPD. The findings reveal that teachers learn in the TLC through different TPD activities. Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) are found to mediate the professional learning activities, learning resources, learning support, and assessments in the TLC. Furthermore, three key stakeholders—the local government, teacher working groups, and school principals—play significant roles in supporting teachers’ professional learning in the TLC. Keywords Teacher professional development (TPD) · TPD@Scale · ICT · Activity theory · Teacher learning center · Indonesia
Introduction Education in developing countries faces significant challenges in achieving the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goal 4 of ensuring access to quality education and lifelong learning for all (Ra et al. 2016). The lack of competencies among teachers may be one of the factors that compromises students’ access to quality education. In Indonesia, a South-East Asian country with one of the largest and most diverse teacher workforces in the world, Indonesian * Cher Ping Lim [email protected] 1
Chair Professor of Learning Technologies and Innovation, Faculty of Education and Human Development, The Education University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong SAR, China
2
Program Development Manager, School Development Outreach, Putera Sampoerna Foundation, Jakarta, Indonesia
3
e‑Learning Specialist, Faculty of Education and Human Development, The Education University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong SAR, China
teachers’ average score in the national Teacher Competency Test was 66.94 out of a maximum of 100 (Aghnia and Sandy 2018). This low score reflects the lack of competencies among Indonesian teachers and the need for better teacher competency at school and regency levels (The World Bank 2018). The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) claims that teacher quality is the single most important school-level variable influencing student achievement and has a significant impact on the quality of
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