TEACHERS’ PERCEPTION ON THE IMPLEMENTATION OF PEER OBSERVATION AT AN ENGLISH LANGUAGE EDUCATION DEPARTMENT
Abstract
Teacher professional development can be referred as a way for a teacher to
develop an individual’s skills, knowledge, attitude, performance, expertise and
competence. One of the ways to achieve it by doing peer observation. Peer
observation is an activity to preserve and to advance teachers’ quality. This
research aims to explore the advantages of the implementation of peer observation
according to the teachers’ perception and investigate the disadvantages of the
implementation of peer observation according to the teachers’ perception. This
research used qualitative research approach and employed descriptive qualitative
design. This research was conducted at an English department in a private
university in Yogyakarta. There were involved three English teachers as the
participants. The researcher interviewed participants to get the data. The
researcher also used interview guideline as the instrument of the research. The
findings of this study showed that there were some advantages and disadvantages
of peer observation according to the teachers’ perception. The advantages were
that peer observation improved the quality of teachers, it made the teachers more
aware, it made the teachers more prepared in teaching, it increased the teachers’
knowledge about teaching, it increased their teaching techniques and it made
teacher feel happy and enjoy. The disadvantages were that peer observation made
teacher feel bored, it made teacher feel anxious, it made teacher feel awkward, it
made teacher feel intimidated.