Journal of Southeast Asian Education
The Official Journal of SEAMEO
2022 Issue | Volume 1

Teacher Education Past andPresent: Addressing Current
Challenges for a Better Future

Southeast Asian
Ministers of Education
Organization2022 Issue | Volume 1

Teacher Education Past and Present:
Addressing Current Challenges for a
Better Future

Southeast Asian
Ministers of Education
Organization

Journal of Southeast Asian Education(2022 Issue | Volume 1)
132 pages
ISSN 1513-4601
The Journal of Southeast Asian Education is an official scholarly publication of the Southeast Asian Ministersof Education Organisation (SEAMEO). The primary goal of this international journal is to give information andanalyses to aid in policymaking and planning for the region’s countries. This joint publication (SEAMEO andUniversity of Tsukuba, Japan) encourages the sharing of ideas on educational topics and comparative studies
for students, instructors, researchers, and lecturers on regional and global platforms. Each article was prepared
to provide readers with an overview of how education systems and advocacy were designed and executed,
particularly in establishing national capacities. The SEAMEO Secretariat issued the first issues of the Journalof Southeast Asian Education in July 2000.
Executive Editor:

Dr. Kamaleswaran Jayarajah(Research, Evaluation and Assessment Specialist of SEAMEO Secretariat)

Consultant:

Professor Dr. Nayan Kanwal(Chief Consultant, Independent Research International [IRI]) & JHSSR

Editors:

Prof Masami Isoda(Professor, University of Tsukuba, Japan)
Dr. Nomura Nakao(Associate Professor, University of Tsukuba, Japan)
Mr John Arnold Siena(Deputy Director for Programme & Development of SEAMEO Secretariat)
Ms Chanika Nonthachai(Secretary of Programme and Development Office of SEAMEO Secretariat)

Editorial Office:

Journal of Southeast Asian Education
SEAMEO Secretariat
Mom Luang Pin
Malakul Centenary Building,920 Sukhumvit Road,
Bangkok 10110,
ThailandPhone:
Fax:
Website:+66 (0) 2391-0144, 2391-0256, 2391-0554+66 (0) 2381-2587
secretariat@seameo.org

Printed in Bangkok, Thailand©SEAMEO 2022
The designations and presentation of the materials throughout the publication do not imply any opinion on thepart of SEAMEO regarding the legal status of any country, territory, city, or area, or its authorities, frontiers, orboundaries.

iv

Contents
01 FOREWORD: A Message form the Director, SEAMEO Secretariat

vii

Datuk Dr Habibah Abdul Rahim

02 SEAMEO CECCEP Support for In-Service Teacher Training for Early Childhood Care
Education1
Iwan Aries Setyawan and Ith Vuthy

03 SEAQIL’s Response to COVID-19 and Training Designs for Pre-Service and In-Service
Teachers6
Luh Anik Mayani

04 STEM Education: SEAQiM’s Response during Covid-19 Pandemic for In-Service
Teachers15
Sumardyono

05 SEAQIS’ Efforts in Improving Science Teacher to Keep Learning Continuity During andPost Covid-19 Pandemic Era26

Adella Anfidina Putri, Indrawati, Gunawan Muhammad and Septian Karyana

06 Learning Through Making – A Proposed Sustainable Education

38

Shah Jahan Assanarkutty and Loh Su Ling

07 Innovations in In-Service Teacher Training during the COVID-19 Pandemic at SEAMEORETRAC in Vietnam

48

Ho Thanh My Phuong

08 SEAMOLEC Journey on Providing Professional Development for Teachers in ICT
Integration into Teaching and Learning

53

Cahya Kusuma Ratih and Dona Octanary

09 Ensuring Continuity of Learning for Learners with Disabilities

63

Hanani binti Harun Rasit, Mizanina binti Mohamad Madon, Ahmad Heikhal bin Amir
Hamzah and Monishah binti Mohd Shah

10 Assessing the Curriculum Implementation Effectiveness at General and Technical HighSchools in Cambodia

70Songheang Ai and Vorn Timv

11 Preparing TVET Teachers in Response to COVID-19 and Industry 4.085

Paryono Paryono

12 Mathematics, Data Science and AI Education in the University of Tsukuba

95

Kato Mitsuyasu

13 Semantic analysis of a lesson in an online program: A focus on Japanese Terminology

99

Masami Isoda and Diego Solis Worsfold

14 Past and future of teacher education in Japan: Considering the modality of practicalexperiences during the COVID-19 pandemic

108

Asakura Masashi

15 All-Japan International Online Education Platform: The Case of the JV-Campus
Ohniwa Ryosuke

vi

118

Foreword
The COVID-19 pandemic has created unprecedented conditions in
all areas of social life and changed the educational landscape acrossthe globe. Teachers in Southeast Asia have gone through a processof transformation in their teaching approaches and practices, inparticular, the adoption of new learning delivery modalities such as
online mode of teaching and learning. Due to the abrupt change,teachers faced several challenges in using new technology forteaching and learning, tutoring, and motivating students from a
distance.
Many if not most of the teachers began to provide education on virtual mode without much experienceand prior training. As a step forward in strengthening the preparation of teachers in the new normal,
the Southeast Asian Ministers of Education Organization (SEAMEO) has put together a selection ofquality articles under the theme, “Teacher Education Past and Present: Addressing Current Challenges
for a Better Future” based on the 10th SEAMEO-University Tsukuba Symposium in the Journal ofSoutheast Asian Education, SEAMEO’s official research publication. This journal aims to showcase
the best practices in teacher education and training in responding to disruptions in education due
to the pandemic. The articles in this journal also identify the opportunities and challenges faced byteacher education and training institutions in Southeast Asia during the pandemic. I express mysincere gratitude to the University of Tsukuba (UT) of Japan for their support and dedication as thisjournal will certainly form a valuable addition to the existing body of knowledge on teacher educationand training. I hope that this journal will inspire policymakers, teachers, and learners to act towards
consolidating the policy changes moving forward as well as improving practice responsive to thedemands of the new normal and to future needs and challenges in teacher education and training.

Datuk Dr Habibah Abdul Rahim
Director, SEAMEO Secretariat
Bangkok, Thailandvii

Journal of Southeast Asian Education (Vol. 1 | Special Issue): 1 – 5 (2022)

Teacher Education Past and Present:
Addressing Current Challenges for a Better Futurewww.seameo.org

SEAMEO CECCEP Support for In-Service Teacher Training for Early
Childhood Care Education
Iwan Aries Setyawan1* and Ith Vuthy2
SEAMEO CECCEP, Bandung, Indonesia

1,2*Corresponding Author
Iwan Aries Setyawan
Email:
iwanaries@seameo-ceccep.org
Co-Author(s):Author 2: Ith Vuthy
E-mail: vuthy@seameo-ceccep.org

ABSTRACT
By the second half of the year 2021 after the COVID-19 pandemic, Indonesia had
already re-opened the schools with very strict protocols. During the pandemic,
Indonesia suffered a negative impact on learning process. The learning loss equals
up to 6 months of learning per year and the gap between students from rich andpoor families increased 10%. The Ministry of Education Culture, Research andTechnology adjusted school regulations during the COVID-19 pandemic era toprevent the negative impact of COVID-19. Government supports programmes
for distance learning alongside any health programmes such as vaccines. Healthprotocols monitoring system at schools is provided by the Ministry of Education,
Culture, Research and Technology through an online service. One of the programmes
initiated by the Ministry of Education, Culture, Research and Technology to catch up
with the learning loss during the COVID-19 pandemic era is Building Back Better withtwo core programmes: remedial programme and reorientation of learning.
Southeast Asian Ministers of Education Organization Regional Centre for Early
Childhood Care Education and Parenting (SEAMEO CECCEP) developed innovations
for enhancing teaching and learning during the pandemic era especially for theteacher qualification such as conducting home visit survey, as well as planning,
conducting, monitoring and evaluation programmes. SEAMEO CECCEP also
conducted programmes of teachers’ in-service training during pandemic era such as
children participation in a research process, implementation of holistic integrative
ECE, mindful parenting, “dwi-asas” character, and dialogic reading.

Keywords: education, early childhood, innovation, international, pandemic, training

Published by SEAMEO Organization, ISSN 1513-4601 | Editorial Office: SEAMEO Secretariat, 920 Sukhumvit Road, Bangkok, Thailand.
Tel: (+662) 3910144 | Fax: (+662) 3812587 | E-mail: secretariat@seameo.org This article is under CC BY-SA License.

SEAMEO CECCEP Support for In-Service Teacher Training for Early Childhood Care Education

INTRODUCTION
COVID-19 pandemic has been declaredfor 2 years. Many policies have been taken tocope with this pandemic situation. One of thebiggest policies was school closing. This policy
has the largest impact on education. Most of
the schools have been performing study fromhome using distance learning methods. Teachersand students have to embrace distance learningin their daily activities. Teachers must prepare
the materials and deliver the learning activities
online. Students must gain efforts in learningin relatively new methods and advancing
technology to cope with the methods.
Negative Impacts of COVID-19 Pandemic on
Learning
The Ministry of Education, Culture, Research,
and Technology (MoECRT) of the Republic ofIndonesia with the World Bank has issued areport on education losses from the COVID-19
pandemic. The report said that the school
closure had resulted in a loss approximately
0.44 - 0.47 or equivalent to 5-6 months oflearning per year. This number showed theimpact of school closures during the COVID-19
pandemic in Indonesia had become a newphenomenon.
The report also indicated that there is anincreasing gap between the rich and poorfamily background students up to 10%. While
the students with rich family backgrounds canafford the digital technology and infrastructure
for distance learning, some of the students
with poor family backgrounds are not thatlucky. Many students have to use their parents’smartphones in turns with their siblings in order2

to catch up with the class. Other students are notfortunate enough to get a good signal or internet
connection for their devices just to communicate
with their teachers.
The drop-out rate in primary schools also
increased to 10 times. The drop-out cases
are dominated by students with poor family
backgrounds. The projection also reported
that the drop-out rate would increase in theupcoming years if the government continues theschool closure.
However, some of the districts had minimal
impact on the pandemic such as Yogyakarta
and Bukittinggi due to the effective support andparents’ engagement in the student learning
process. It seems parents with higher education
backgrounds show to be more supportive totheir children’s education.
The teachers had faced no less difficulties
during the school closures. The challenges
mostly were the lack of guidance, training, andresources to support distance learning during
the COVID-19 pandemic era. Although distancelearning is not a new phenomenon in education,
this method is not familiar for basic education
actors. They had to embrace distance learning intheir daily activities. With their limitation, they
are required to find compatible technology themost suitable to their needs and ability. Some
had discovered effective and efficient ways inusing digital technology, but some teachers still
struggled to find that way.
School Adjustment Regulation
With the negative impacts of the COVID-19
pandemic, there were a lot of considerations toreopen the school again. The MoECRT adjusted

Journal of Southeast Asian Education (Vol. 1 | Special Issue): 1 – 5 (2022)

Iwan Aries Setyawan and Ith Vuthy

school regulations during the pandemic era
to prevent the negative impact of COVID-19
pandemic. Since July 2021, local governments
have applied limited face-to-face learning at
schools according to the pandemic level atthe district. Schools that fulfilled all necessary
conditions may reopen but not obligatory,
subject to permissions from parents and local
authorities.
The health protocol monitoring systems
at schools by MoECRT are school readinesschecklist,
compliance,screening,andsurveillance. Some of the school readinesschecklists are: school workforce for COVID-19
protocols, availability of sanitation facilities,
access to health facilities and services,tracking for students-teachers-administrators,
and vaccination programs. These checklists
are provided by the Ministry of Education,
Culture, Research and Technologywith online
applications connected to the Ministry of
Health online applications. School workforces
are obligated to observe the implementationof health protocols at school as well as thescreening on COVID-19 symptoms in schools.
These school workforces are supervised by
the local workforce that was conducted by
local authorities. The Ministry of Health hasprovided an online application for real time
identification to screen all visitors in every
public area. This application is called “Peduli
Lindungi” and can recap screening result QR
code.
The Indonesian government also provided
support programs for distance learning such asaccess to internet networks for schools, internet
quota subsidies, and more access to online
learning materials.

Building Back Better
In order to prevent losses and more damagein education from the negative impact of the
COVID-19 pandemic, some action needs to betaken. One of the programmes initiated by the
Ministry of Education, Culture, Research andTechnology to catch up with the learning loss
during the COVID-19 pandemic era is Building
Back Better with two core programmes: remedial
program and reorientation of learning.
Remedial programs are required for the
students that were left behind. Teachers areunder obligation to perform diagnostic tests tothe students periodically to find out cognitive
and non-cognitive effects on students. Noncognitive diagnostic tests include psychologicalsocial-emotional welfare, learning activities athome, and family situation. Cognitive diagnostic
tests are performed to identify the students’
academic performance and the teachers will use
the result to specify strategies for learning andremedial interventions. The activities involve
intensive observation to diagnose learning
deficiencies, identify the most essential andfoundational development aspects, define
learning goals, remedial target, schedule andnecessary resources, combined with the current
ongoing learning programs. Teachers shouldallocate enough time to students to participate.
Information and communication technology use
is crucial in this aspect and teachers need toincrease their competencies on digital skills andpedagogies.
On the other hand, curriculum and learning
need to be reviewed. The Ministry of Education,
Culture, Research and Technology encourages
the schools to adopt emergency curriculum

Journal of Southeast Asian Education (Vol. 1 | Special Issue): 1 – 5 (2022)

3

SEAMEO CECCEP Support for In-Service Teacher Training for Early Childhood Care Educationin special occurrences. This curriculum is stillbased on “Kurikulum 2013” with some simplified
basic competencies and focused on essential
prerequisite competencies for the next level.
The schools are expected to simplify the scopeof learning outcomes into the most essential andfoundational so the learning is based on student
attainment and development. The teachers
should perform the teaching relevant to students’life, culture, and future needs. Therefore,teachers should enhance their competencies on
digital skills and pedagogies.
Innovation for Enhancing Teacher Qualification
Southeast Asian Ministers of Education
Organization Regional Centre for Early Childhood
Care Education (SEAMEO CECCEP) is a regional
centre focusing on enhancing early childhood
education and parenting in Southeast Asia
through research, capacity building, andadvocacy. During the pandemic era, SEAMEOCECCEP continued on pursuing innovationin early childhood education and parenting
programs. One of the most popular programs
is teacher training on planning, conducting,monitoring, and evaluating teaching programs.
In this program, teachers are provided withsubjects such as planning appropriate lessonplans, conducting innovative digital learning,monitoring the digital learning, evaluating theoverall program to have feedback to improveteaching. SEAMEO CECCEP also encourages
strong partnership between ECCE teachers andparents.
During the COVID-19 pandemic era, SEAMEOCECCEP had already carried out several teachers’
in-service trainings such as Children Participation4

in Research Process, Implementation of Holistic
Integrative ECCE, Mindful Parenting, Dwi-Asas
Character (Character Building), and Dialogic
Reading. In training on Children Participation in
Research Process, teachers are encouraged toengage the children in performing classroom
action research and any other research. Children’s
participation is one key to provide better views
and circumstances for performing research.
Teachers training on Implementation ofHolistic Integrative ECCE is carried out in several
districts in Java for duration of two months. The
participants gained more knowledge and skills
on performing holistic-integrative educationfor early childhood. Holistic-integrative ECCE
involved nutrition, health, education, nurturing,and protection children.
Mindful Parenting is a training program forteachers and parents in order to get better atinteracting with children. Parents are encouraged
to deal with their own emotions and situations
before they interact with their children because
unbalanced emotions may do harm to thechildren in the future. While in the “Dwi-Asas”
Character Building training, teachers and parents
are expected to give exemplary characters to thechildren on decent manners such as courtesy
and diligence.
CONCLUSIONSEAMEO CECCEP has been pursuing innovationin enhancing early childhood education andparenting. During the COVID-19 pandemic era,
SEAMEO CECCEP had supportdata and research
result to the MoECRT for developing policies
and programs’ references. In the near future,
SEAMEO CECCEP needs to accommodate more

Journal of Southeast Asian Education (Vol. 1 | Special Issue): 1 – 5 (2022)

Iwan Aries Setyawan and Ith Vuthy

requirements from the other countries inSoutheast Asia or even in Asia. Many programs
can be scaled up into international audiences, so
SEAMEO CECCEP can reach wider beneficiaries inearly childhood education and parenting.
There is plenty of room and space forinnovation in early childhood education andparenting. SEAMEO CECCEP wants to focus moreon partnership programs between ECCE teachersand parents and conducting home visit surveys
in the next several years.

recent international datasets, Luxemburg
Publicatons Office of the European Union.
Yarrow, N., Masood, E., and Afkar, R (2020), Estimateof COVID-19 Impacts on learning and earning
in Indonesia: How to turn the tide, The WorldBank
Kementerian Pendidikan, Kebudayaan, Riset, dan
Teknologi,

PanduanPenyelenggaraan

Pembelajaran PAUD Dikdasmen di Masa
Pandemi COVID-19, 2021
Surat Keputusan Bersama Menteri Pendidikan,
Kebudayaan, Riset, dan Tekonologi, Menteri

REFERENCES

Agama, Menteri Kesehatan, dan Menteri

Afkar, R and Yarrow, N (2021), Rewrite the future:

Dalam Negeri Republik Indonesia Nomor 05/

How Indonesia’s education system can

KB/2021 tentang Panduan Penyelenggaraan

overcome the losses from the COVID-19

Pembelajaran di Masa Pandemi Corona

Pandemic and raise learning outcomes for

Virus Desease 2019 (COVID-19)

all, The World Bank.

Ministry of Education, Culture, Research, adn

Di Pietro, G., Biagi, F., Costa P., Karpinski Z, Mazza

Technology, School Readiness Dashboard inJ, (2020), JRC Technical Report: The likely

Pandemic COVID-19, [Online] Available https://

impact of COVID-19 on education: Reflection

sekolah.data.kemdikbud.go.id/kesiapanbelajar/

based on the existing literature anddashboard[2002], January 20].

Journal of Southeast Asian Education (Vol. 1 | Special Issue): 1 – 5 (2022)

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Journal of Southeast Asian Education (Vol. 1 | Special Issue): 6 – 14 (2022)

Teacher Education Past and Present:
Addressing Current Challenges for a Better Futurewww.seameo.org

SEAQIL’s Response to COVID-19 and Training Designs for Pre-Service and
In-Service Teachers
Luh Anik Mayani*
SEAMEO QITEP in Language, Jakarta, Indonesia*Corresponding Author
Luh Anik Mayani
E-mail: annie_mayani@yahoo.com

ABSTRACT
Since 2020, during the COVID-19 pandemic and the new normal, SEAMEO QITEP in
Language (SEAQIL) shifted the mode of its programs from offline to online and/or
blended mode. Some which were held in blended mode complied with the healthprotocols issued by the Indonesian government. Thanks to technology, the online
mode enables SEAQIL to serve more participants in every program. Regarding theteacher training program, in general, the purpose is to improve professional and/or
pedagogical competence, either for pre-service or in-service teachers. Furthermore,considering that pre-service and in-service teachers may have different needs andrequirements, the training programs are designed to meet the respective needs or
requirements. This paper aims to give insights on SEAQIL’s response to COVID-19,
i.e., adapting its programs and activities in order to assist language teachers to
be resilient amidst the pandemic and the new normal. Specifically, it represents
SEAQIL’s training designs addressing needs of pre-service and in-service teachers.
Different training designs are necessary because pre-service teacher trainings focus
on learning how to be a teacher while in-service teacher trainings focus on learning
how to sustain and improve oneself as a teacher.

Keywords: COVID-19, in-service teacher, pre-service teacher, SEAQIL, training program

Introduction
We all agree that the past two years havebeen very challenging. Amidst the difficult times,
SEAMEO QITEP in Language (SEAQIL, also called
the Centre) had learned to adapt to circumstances
and implemented innovative ways to overcome
the challenges and grasped all the possibilities

to fulfil its commitment in improving quality oflanguage teachers and education personnel.
The Centre’s responses to COVID-19 can beseen from various adaptations implemented toassist language teachers to be resilient amidst
the pandemic and the new normal. Thanks to

Published by SEAMEO Organization, ISSN 1513-4601 | Editorial Office: SEAMEO Secretariat, 920 Sukhumvit Road, Bangkok, Thailand.
Tel: (+662) 3910144 | Fax: (+662) 3812587 | E-mail: secretariat@seameo.org This article is under CC BY-SA License.

Luh Anik Mayani

technology, the online activities enable theCentre to serve more participants in Southeast
Asia region and even beyond.
Regarding the training programs, in general
SEAQIL designs its trainings to improve
professional and/or pedagogical competence,either for pre-service or in-service teachers.
Considering that pre-service and in-service
teachers may have different needs andrequirements, each training program isdesigned accordingly to meet those needs or
requirements. Different training designs arenecessary because pre-service teacher trainings
focus on learning how to be a teacher while inservice teacher trainings focus on learning how
to sustain and improve oneself as a teacher.

SEAQIL’s Adaptation as Response to COVID-19
Responding the changes resulted by the
COVID-19 pandemic, there are at least fourtypes of adaptation implemented by SEAQIL
during the COVID-19 pandemic and the newnormal: (1) adapting mode/design of activities;(2) adapting theme of activities; (3) adapting
products and publication; and (4) “adapting”
experts and participants. Each type of adaptation
is described as follows.
ADAPTING MODE/DESIGN OF ACTIVITIES
Since 2020 the Centre has shifted the modeof its programs and activities, including training

The data and information presented in thispaper is mainly based on SEAQIL’s program
achievement in 2021 (some in 2020)--which
can possibly be accessed through the Centre
publication in the website or social medias.
Furthermore, there are information which arecompiled from books or moduls published by the

programs, from offline to online and/or blended
mode. Some which were held in blended mode
complied with the health protocols issued by
the Indonesian government. In addition, theformer offline-synchronous training is thendeveloped into an online training combining thesynchronous-asynchronous mode. It appears
that the asynchronous mode provides extra time
for the participants to do their assigments, forexample, accomplishing the projects targeted in
the training program or carrying out a discussion
forum or sharing session among participants.
Meanwhile, during the synchronous meeting,beside attending lecture or presentation by
the training instructors, participants also haveopportunity to present their projects or consult
their instructor(s) regarding the completionof the targeted project. In other words, byapplying the synchronous-asynchronous mode,the participants have more flexibility to manage
their time appropriately, based on their own

Centre as well as program guidelines provided
by the Centre in its training programs.

needs without neglecting the targets of the
training programs.

In order to explore adaptation applied by
the Centre as response the COVID-19 and thetraining designs addressing needs of pre-service
and in-service language teachers, there are
2 issues discussed in this paper: (1) SEAQIL’s
adaptation as response to COVID-19 and (2)SEAQIL’s training designs for pre-service andin-service language teachers. The trainings will
be described based on their target participants,
modes, contents, and learning outcomes(products) created by pre-service or in-service
teachers after joining the programs.

Journal of Southeast Asian Education (Vol. 1 | Special Issue): 6 – 14 (2022)

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SEAQIL’s Response to COVID-19 and Training Designs for Pre-Service and In-Service Teachers

Other adaptations of mode/design ofactivities can be seen from the form ofwebinars replacing offline seminars; the online
competitions to substitute the offline ones; andproviding possibilities for intern-students to
conduct remote-intership program. Through a
newly initiated program, “School Literacy Club”which was launched in February 2021, theCentre successfully involved 295 intern-students
from 17 partner universities in Indonesia,
serving 1.970 students at 64 high schools in 12
provinces in Indonesia. In addition, an innovative
program, Mandarin Virtual Club, also attracted
overseas intern-students, i.e., Chinese university
students serving as native Mandarin mentors.
This program which was conducted up to 3
batches in 2021 engaged active participation of
10 interns (nominated by the Global Adventurer
China) and effectively served 112 pre-service
and in-service Mandarin teachers which were
mostly from Indonesia and other countries inSoutheast Asia region.
Above all, the pandemic and the new normal
encouraged the Centre to equip itself with an“updated” technology suitable to carry out
online activities adequately, i.e.., the webinars,
online symposium, training programs, and othernecessities. Limited use of online platforms andfacilities prior the pandemic has been developed
accordingly to address various needs or services.

The list shows that there are problems which
are basically related to teachers’ competency
in conducting online learning, such as lack ofknowledge in online learning methodology orlack of knowledge in providing online learning
medias or materials.
Referring to those issues, the Centre has
managed to adapt the theme of its activities inorder to assist teachers to be resilient with the
new way of learning, i.e., the online learning. In
2021, the Centre conducted 3 events discussing
on the use of technology in language learning,i.e., a webinar in April on “Improving Teacher’s
Foreign Language Competence in the Digital Era”
and another webinar in July on “Transformationof Foreign Language Learning in the Digital Era”,
and the 12th Annual International Symposium
on Foreign Language Learning (AISOFOLL) on
the theme “The Use of Technology to Assist
Teachers and Students in Language Learning”.

Mayani (2021) summarizes some problems
encountered by teachers amidst the COVID-19
pandemic, among others, technical problems

In addition to webinars, the Centre alsoorganized a forum aiming at prividing a sharing
session for language teachers to deliver theirbest practices amidst the pandemic. The bestpractices shared by the Indonesian teachers
in that forum were then compiled in a bookentitled “Kumpulan Praktik Baik Pengajaran
Bahasa pada Masa Pandemi Covid-19” or “Best
Practices of Language Learning amidst COVID-19(internet access or devices availability); problems
related to teachers’ competencies (being ICT

Pandemic” (SEAMEO QITEP in Language, inpress).

ADAPTING THEME OF ACTIVITIES

8

illiterate or lack of knowledge regarding online
learning methodology); problems with theavailability of teaching materials or medias (lackof variations of online learning materials or
medias or unsuitable curriculum); and students’
active involvement in online learning.

Journal of Southeast Asian Education (Vol. 1 | Special Issue): 6 – 14 (2022)

Luh Anik Mayani

Furthermore, the lack of online teachingmaterials were responded by the Centre by
conducting a training on script writing or creating
digital content for language learning. The output
products of the training were in the form ofanimated learning videos and vodcast videos
which are accessible through the SEAMEO QITEPin Language Youtube channel.
(https://www.youtube.com/c/SEAMEOQITEPinLanguage).

ADAPTING PRODUCTS AND PUBLICATION
One major change caused by the COVID-19
pandemic is the online class replacing the offline
one. Consequently, teachers need to adapt theirteaching method to be applicable in online setting.
Additionally, teachers cannot abandon the 4Cs
competencies (critical thinking, communication,
creativity, and collaboration) acquired in the
21st Century. In order to provide teachers with agood understanding on the 21st Century skills in
language learning as well as to propose someapproaches which may be applicable in virtual
classes, the Centre published a modul entitled
Modul Kecakapan Abad Ke-21 untuk Guru Bahasa
or “The 21st Century Skills Moduls for Language
Teachers” (Kharismawati, 2021). This modul
informs language teachers how to conduct the 21stCentury-based learning by implementing three
approaches, such as communicative language
teaching, cooperative language learning, andmobile assisted language learning approach.
Those three approaches are complemented withstrategies and evaluation procedures which are
well explained in some examples of practicallesson plan in English and German language class.
Besides adapting the content of the moduls,
as mentioned in the previous sub-chapter, otherpublications which are suitable to the new eraof learning are the animated learning videos
or vodcast videos. The scripts of videos were
written by language teachers through some
programs, i.e., training on script writing forlanguage learning videos or the virtual language
club. After finishing the script, the teachers
participating in those programs were trained
to produce simple videos for their own uses.
Moreover, selected videos uploaded in theCenter YouTube Channel can also be used byother language teachers to enrich their teachingmaterials.
“ADAPTING” EXPERTS AND PARTICIPANTS
The challenge to perform online activities orprograms has created opportunity for the Centre
to serve more language teachers, education
personel, stakeholders, schools, students,and other interested parties in Southeast
Asia region and beyond. Thus, to cover wider
area of participation, the use of technology tosupport the program implementation should bemaintained consistently in the digital era.
There are at least three advantages obtainedby conducting activities or programs online
as follows. (1) It broadens opportunity for
the Centre to reach the unreached, involving
participants from Southeast Asia region or evenbeyond which is impossible to be gatheredoffline. (2) Online activities offer broader
networks for the Centre to invite experts
worldwide. On the other hand, it also opens
wider options for language teachers in theregion to learn best practices or to improve theirknowledge and skills from overseas experts.
Thus, learning from each other, from different

Journal of Southeast Asian Education (Vol. 1 | Special Issue): 6 – 14 (2022)

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SEAQIL’s Response to COVID-19 and Training Designs for Pre-Service and In-Service Teachers

side of the world may speed up the education
equity for future generation. (3) Online activities
cost much lower budget compare to the offline
ones. Consequently, the Centre can conduct
more programs or activities benefiting language
teachers and education personel.
Comparing the Centre’s achievement in
2021 and back in 2020, pointing the numbers ofparticipants, the individuals participated were
almost double (nearly 11.000 individuals from23 countries in 2021; compare to less than 6.000
participants in 2020). In term of numbers ofprograms, the Centre successfully conducted 72
programs and activities in 2021 in comparison to
32 programs/activities in 2020.
To sum up, it can be concluded that SEAQIL’s
responses to COVID-19 can be seen from theadaptation applied to the current situation,i.e., adapting mode/design of activities,
adapting theme of activities, adapting productor publication, and “adapting” experts andindividuals participating in the Centre programs
and activities. Those adaptations enable theCentre assisting language teachers to beresilient amidst the pandemic and the newnormal. Finally, the challenging time caused by
the pandemic do not prevent the Centre to fulfil
its commitment in improving quality of language
teachers and education personnel in Southeast
Asia region or even beyond.
Training Designs for Pre-Service and In-Service
Teachers
Teacher training programs is a part of theCentre’s efforts to conduct teacher professional
development. The Centre recognizes thatthe teacher professional development is very

10

important to improve student learning outcomes.
In addition, it is also critical to emphasize on
pedagogical content knowledge because it
focuses on the pedagogical implication, i.e.,planning, instruction, and assessment.
Quoting Shulman (1987) in Solís (2009),
pedagogical content knowledge consists of (1)knowledge of subject matter representations(content knowledge); (2) understanding ofstudents’ conceptions of the subject andthe teaching-learning implications that wereassociated with the specific subject matter;and (3) general pedagogical knowledge (orteaching strategies); (4) curriculum knowledge;(5) knowledge of educational contexts; and (6)knowledge of the education purposes.
As mentioned earlier in the Introduction, in
general, teacher training programs conductedby SEAQIL aim to improve professional and/or
pedagogical competencies, either for pre-service
or in-service teachers. Covering pedagogicalcontent knowledge in the training programs,
it is expected that this knowledge will bridge
teachers’ knowledge of the subject matterand their knowledge and skills in planning thecurriculum (in the form of syllabus or lessonplan) and managing their teaching strategies
as well as their interactions with students inteaching-learning process.
Considering that pre-service and inservice teachers may have different needs or
requirements, the Centre constructs different
programs respectively. Training design for preservice teachers focuses to train the participant
learning how to be a teacher while in-service
teacher training focuses to train the participant
learning how to sustain and improve oneself as

Journal of Southeast Asian Education (Vol. 1 | Special Issue): 6 – 14 (2022)

Luh Anik Mayani

a teacher. In other words, in-service teachers
need to improve their knowledge, skills, andcommitments, thus they become more effective
in planning lessons, teaching, assessing students’learning, and undertaking other responsibilities
in the school community.

meeting. Meanwhile, types of activities
requested by teachers in synchronous meeting
including presentation from training instructors,presentation by participants, and discussion
session. Finally, those findings are then used by
the Centre in designing its training programs.

Technically, most teacher trainings at SEAQIL
are now conducted fully online and/or in blended
mode. It should be noted that in addition to be
defined as an online meeting with a combination
between synchronous-asynchronous, “blended”
mode may also refer to a combination between
online and offline meeting. This kind of“blended” mode is conducted when the majority

In addition to the result of the survey whichmainly focused on the mode of the training
and activities requested by the respondents
during the training, the Centre also considers
other relevant details. Among others, type ofcompetencies targeted in the training, target
group of participants, aims of the training, basisof training activities (practical or theoreticalof the training participants are from Jakarta andits surrounding area which makes it possible togather in one particular place around Jakarta.
However, there are usually a small number ofparticipants who are attending the training
online. Therefore, in this paper, the definitionof blended mode puts more emphasis on the
combination of synchronous-asynchronous
meeting, whether the participants attending thetraining fully online (i.e., virtually), offline (i.e.,
face-to-face in an offline classroom), or online
and offline.

basis), the content of the trainings, and thetraining outcomes (products).

Before changing the mode of the training
programs, in January 2021 SEAQIL conducted an
online survey involving 183 language teachers
covering 27 provinces in Indonesia. The survey
confirmed the respondents’ preference ofchoosing a blended training mode in a form ofsynchronous-asynchronous meeting. Moreover,mapping the activities during synchronousasynchronous meeting, the respondents
preferred having a discussion forum, i.e., sharing
session among teachers and doing training
assignments or quizzes within asynchronousConcerning those details, the following table
represents types of trainings managed by theCentre based on the target participants, modes,
aims (based on the targeted competencies),
basis, the content of the trainings (theme),
and learning outcomes (products) created byteachers after joining the training programs.
From the table, it can be seen that thetarget group of participants for the pre-service
trainings are university students, mostly fromthe third or fourth year. Additionally, SEAQIL
also gives opportunity for fresh graduate
university students scaling up their pedagogicalcompetencies. Meanwhile, the target groups
for in-service teacher trainings are language
teachers. Sometimes, teachers are also classified
based on the students’ levels. For example,
trainings for teachers of Indonesian Language
for Foreign Learners (ILFL) are categorized
into three groups: teachers for beginner level,intermediate level, and advanced level.

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SEAQIL’s Response to COVID-19 and Training Designs for Pre-Service and In-Service Teachers

Table 1. SEAQIL’s Training Designs for Pre-Service and In-Service Teachers

12

NO.

TYPES

PRE-SERVICE

IN-SERVICE

1.

Participants

University students

Language teachers

2.

Modes

• Blended(synchronous-asynchronous)• Online/offline• Blended(synchronous-asynchronous)• Online/offline

3.

Aims

Professional and/or pedagogicalcompentency• Preparing pre-service teachers tohave a good knowledge on teaching
methodology• Preparing pre-service teachers to havea good knowledge on creating teachingmaterials/medias/evaluation• Preparing pre-service teachers to teachin a classroom (online/offline)• Preparing pre-service teachers toencounter culture shock or other “real”
teaching situations• Learning how to implement curriculum
into a syllabus or a lesson plan for acertain level

Professional and/or pedagogicalcompentency• Updating in-service teachers’
knowledge on teaching methodology• Updating in-service teachers’
knowledge on creating teachingmaterials/medias/evaluation• Updating teachers’ skills on thecurrent issues• Updating teachers’ skills and creativity
in creating a syllabus or a lesson plan
for any level• Providing sharing session for peerreview, i.e., commenting on others’
projects based on their own expertiseand experiences.

4.

Basis

• Theoretical basis (and instructors’ and/or mentors’ experiences)• Practical basis and sharing sessions ingroup work

5.

Theme

• Language teaching methodology• Reading• Listening• Writing• Speaking• Language teaching methodology• Reading-writing• Listening-speaking(Combining more than one techniqueto achieve more than one skill)• 21st Century skills• HOTS-based language learning• Developing video scripts for language
learning• Classroom action research

6.

Outcomes• Lesson plan
• Microteaching video simulation• Teaching materials (at least in the formof script)• Lesson plan
• Teaching materials/medias (scripts,
videos or other formats)• Compilation of good practices

The mode of the training for either preservice or in-service teachers are mostly
conducted in blended mode (a combination
between synchronous-asynchronous meeting);
and the participants may present fully online,
fully offline, or a mixed group between online
and offline participants.

is related to the focus of the respective needsof pre-service and in-service teachers. The
former prepares the participants learning
how to be good teachers by mastering a good
pedagogical content knowledge before entering“real” teaching situation. The latter puts moreemphasis on updating or scaling up teachers’

Concerning the targeted competencies oraims of the training, the purpose of the training

knowledge on pedagogical content knowledge
as well as providing opportunity for teachers tobe peer-reviewers in a sharing session where

Journal of Southeast Asian Education (Vol. 1 | Special Issue): 6 – 14 (2022)

Luh Anik Mayani

they are able to share their experiences andgain or give some inputs for other teachers’
problems in a working group. By joining thetraining, in-service teachers are expected to be
more effective in planning lessons, teaching,
and assessing students’ learning.
In term of the training basis, the in-service
teacher training is more practical compare to
the pre-service teacher training. Inputs forpre-service teachers are mainly derived fromthe theoretical basis besides the instructors/
mentors’ experiences. Meanwhile, inputs forin-service teachers are either from instructors/
mentors or from other teachers’ experiences
participating in the training.
Pointing the theme, trainings for in-service
teachers are more variative than those for preservice teachers. As the main focus is learning
how to be good teacher, language teaching
methodology becomes the main agenda of the
pre-service teacher training. On the other hand,in addition to updating teaching strategies, inservice teachers are also prepared to be able tocombine language learning with other skills, suchas the 21st Century skills or combining language
learning and higher order thinking skills through
HOTS-based language learning.
Almost all training programs at SEAQIL are“project-based” trainings. After joining a training
program, teachers are asked to accomplish acertain project, among others, may be in the formof lesson plan; teaching materials, i.e., in theform of scripts, videos, digital content, or othercreative forms; microteaching (video) simulation;
research proposal; or even a compilation ofbest practices in language teaching. The basic
idea behind this “project-based” approach isthat all teachers participating in SEAQIL training
programs could directly apply the theory orconcepts given by the instructors during thetraining. This approach also conveys benefits for
the Centre as it can directly examine the theory
or concepts introduced and relate it with theoutcome products after the training. Moreover,
the Centre can also make adjustment suitable tothe teachers’ needs and requirements.
To summarize this chapter, it should be notedthat pre-service and in-service teachers havedifferent needs or requirements. Furthermore,different needs or requirements demanddifferent training designs. SEAQIL training
designs are managed to meet respective needsof pre-service and in-service teachers and areplanned to improve teachers’ professional and/or pedagogical competencies. Above all, theCentre recognizes that the teacher professional
development is very important to improvestudent learning outcomes. Achieving this goalis critical because the teacher’s role is one of
the most important factors contributing tostudents’ successful learning and high-quality
education.
References
Kharismawati, L.R.S., et al. (2021). Modul Kecakapan
Abad Ke-21 untuk Guru Bahasa. Jakarta:
SEAMEO QITEP in Language. https://www.
qiteplanguage.org/module.
Mayani, L. A. (2021). Adapting Programs to Assist
Teachers and Students with the New Way
of Learning. Journal of Southeast Asian
Education, 1, 123-130. https://elibrary.
seameo.org/slims9/index.php?p=show_
detail&id=3047.

Journal of Southeast Asian Education (Vol. 1 | Special Issue): 6 – 14 (2022)

13

SEAQIL’s Response to COVID-19 and Training Designs for Pre-Service and In-Service Teachers

SEAMEO QITEP in Language. (in press). “Kumpulan

Learning of Content Teachers in Classrooms

Praktik Baik Pengajaran Bahasa pada Masa

with Diverse Student Populations. IDRA

Pandemi Covid-19”. Jakarta: SEAMEO QITEP

Newsletter,in Language.

Development

Solís, A. (2009). Pedagogical Content KnowledgeWhat Matters Most in the Professional

14

August2009.

Research

Intercultural
Association.

https://www.idra.org/resource-center/pedagogical-content-knowledge/.

Journal of Southeast Asian Education (Vol. 1 | Special Issue): 6 – 14 (2022)

Journal of Southeast Asian Education (Vol. 1 | Special Issue): 15 – 25 (2022)

Teacher Education Past and Present:
Addressing Current Challenges for a Better Futurewww.seameo.org

STEM Education: SEAQiM’s Response during Covid-19 Pandemic for
In-Service Teachers
Sumardyono*
SEAMEO SEAQIM, Yogyakarta, Indonesia*Corresponding Author
Sumardyono
E-mail:sumardyonomatematika@gmail.com

ABSTRACTDuring the Covid-19 pandemic, an appropriate effort is needed to help teachers
prepare for learning. SEAQiM views STEM education as a strategic alternative
because it prepares students to have 21st century skills. In addition, STEM learning
can also prepare teachers to carry out post-pandemic learning because STEM is an
integrated, fun, and real or applicable context approach. Therefore, of the 8 regularcourse themes carried by SEAQiM, the STEM topic is of particular concern. Various
forms of STEM-related programs have been carried out by SEAQiM for teachers inSoutheast Asia, and have received good responses and results. The programs include
Regular Course & In-Country Course on STEM in Math Education, Workshop on
STEM+CT Learning Material, Workshop on STEAM Education Research, Workshop
on STEM for Special Need Education Teachers, STEM Camp, Research Grants on
STEAM, International Seminar on STEAM Education, SEAMETRICAL-STEM Edition,and STEM Village Activities.

Keywords: education, STEM, program, mathematics, In-service training

Introduction
The Covid-19 pandemic has had many effects
on education around the world. According to
UNESCO data, in April 2020, over 1.1 billion
school learners were affected by the pandemic(at that time) with country wide school-closures
affecting 117 countries (UNESCO, 2021); andthere are over 55 million affected students,
with country-wide school closures affecting
14 countries, at the time of writing this report(October 2021) (UNESCO, 2021, October).

A survey conducted by UNESCO and the IEA(International Association for the Evaluationof Educational Achievement) found that the
COVID-19 pandemic disrupted education
provision at an unprecedented scale, witheducation systems around the world being
impacted by extended school closures and abruptchanges to normal school operations. (Meinck,
Fraillon, & Strietholt, 2022). There are many
limitations in the implementation of education

Published by SEAMEO Organization, ISSN 1513-4601 | Editorial Office: SEAMEO Secretariat, 920 Sukhumvit Road, Bangkok, Thailand.
Tel: (+662) 3910144 | Fax: (+662) 3812587 | E-mail: secretariat@seameo.org This article is under CC BY-SA License.

STEM Education: SEAQiM’s Response during Covid-19 Pandemic for In-Service Teachers

during the pandemic, including difficulties in
the face-to-face learning process, limitations in
the use of learning resources (including digitallearning resources), limited learning and teachingactivities due to COVID-19 affected teachers andstudents, and the closing of schools.
SEAMEO SEAQiM as a regional institution thathas a mandate to improve the professionalism ofteachers and mathematics education personnel
in the Southeast Asia region, sees that there aremany strategies and opportunities to reducethe impact of the pandemic on education
through teachers, one of which is by introducing
and improving the ability of teachers in STEM
education.
Why STEM?
STEM education can contribute to increased
problem-solving skills, critical thinking, andanalytical thinking in students as well as lead tobetter real-world connections in the curriculum.
(Brophy, Klein, Portsmor, Rogers, 2008; National
Science Board, 2007).
According to Merrill (2009), “STEM teaching
and learning focuses on authentic content andproblems, using hands-on, technological tools,
equipment, and procedures in innovative ways
to help solve human wants and needs.”
In general, here are some of the benefits of
STEM education:

16

To get all the advantages above, then STEM
education should be presented in an integrative
way and providing student with experienceswhere they apply knowledge and skills topersonally meaningful and socially relevant realsituations.
Type of (Regular) Course of SEAQiM
SEAQiM since late 2019 has had 8 course
themes as its mandate. The last theme is the
STEM Education theme for learning mathematics.
Therefore, during this Covid-19 pandemic,
SEAQiM faced obstacles as well as challenges
to run programs related to STEM education.
The following are the eight course themes
at SEAQiM, which underlie various SEAQiM
programs to improve teacher competence inSoutheast Asia.
The eight themes for the SEAQiM course
are applied to: 1. Regular Courses attended byteachers from Southeast Asia, and 2. In-Country
Courses intended by the teacher community in
one region (district, province, local government).
The following is an outline, showing how overtime, SEAQiM has implemented STEM Educationin its programs and activities.
SEAQiM’s STEM Program During Pandemic• Encouraging innovation and problem
solving skill.
• Encouraging other 21st century skills.
• Relating to Real-World Problems &During the pandemic, many programs related
to STEM Education were carried out by SEAQiM.
This is to introduce and familiarize teachers withSTEM Education. Professional development
experiences for in-service teachers could also
provide a strong conceptual framework ofapplicating knowledge.
• Builds Resilience.
• Encouraging teamwork.

an integrated STEM approach and build theirconfidence in teaching from an integrated STEM
approach. (Kelley & Knowles, 2016).

Journal of Southeast Asian Education (Vol. 1 | Special Issue): 15 – 25 (2022)

Sumardyono

Figure 1. Eight themes of SEAQiM’s Course

Figure 2. Broad Timeline of SEAQiM Program on STEM Education
A. Regular Course and In-Country Courses

B. STEM Camp and Workshop

During the pandemic, SEAQiM has held one
Regular Courses and two In-Country Courses for
STEM themes.

During the pandemic, SEAQiM also has
several more specialized training programs
related to STEM. Specific programs are known

Table 1. Regular Course and In-Country Course in STEM Education
No

Programme

Date

Place

1

Regular course on STEM in Mathematics
Learning

9 – 27 October 2020

Online2

In-Country Course on STEM in Mathematics
Education for Primary School Teachers –Purworejo (Central Java)

27 September – 1 october 2021

Purworejo (Central Java)In Country Course on STEM in Mathematics
Education for Primary School Teachers –“Sekolah Indonesia Luar Negeri” (SILN), 2021

15 – 19 November 2021

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17

STEM Education: SEAQiM’s Response during Covid-19 Pandemic for In-Service Teachers

Figure 3. Activities on online regular course and offline in-country course
as STEM Camps, where participants from certain
communities or regions carry out face-to-facetraining activities (offline) that allow intensive
STEM training both indoors and outdoors. Dueto travel constraints during the pandemic, STEM
Camp can only be done in Indonesia.
Workshops related to STEM Education werealso conducted by SEAQiM. Workshops related tothe development of learning materials (modules)

on STEM and Computational Thinking, whichwere held in a blended manner. Meanwhile,
workshops related to STEAM Education Research
are conducted entirely online.
C. Seminar, Research, and Publication on STEM
Education
During the pandemic, SEAQiM also organizes
seminars, research, and publications related toTable 2. STEM Camp and Workshop on STEM Education
No

Programme

Date

Place

3

STEM CAMP for Junior High School
Mathematics Teachers

27 September – 1 October 2021

Pemalang, Central Java

25 – 29 October 2021

Purwakarta, West Java8 – 12 November 2021

Lombok, West Nusa
Tenggara

12 – 18 December 2021

Badung, Bali

Workshop on STEM + Computational Thinking
Learning Materials

1 – 6 March 2021

Online (zoom) andoffline (SEAQiM)

Workshop on STEAM Education Research for
Junior High School Mathematics Teachers

21 – 22 June 2021

online4

Figure 4. STEM Camps activities

18

Journal of Southeast Asian Education (Vol. 1 | Special Issue): 15 – 25 (2022)

Sumardyono

Figure 5. Trial-out activities about STEM+CT learning material prototype.
Table 3. STEM Camp and Workshop on STEM Education
No

Programme

Date

Place

5

International Seminar on STEM Education
Research “STEAM as Innovation in
Mathematics Learning”

1 – 3 December 2021

Yogyakarta

6

Research Grants SEAQiM 2021 on STEAM

July – November 2021

online7

SEAMETRICAL – STEM Edition

December 2021

SEAQiM

STEM education. The following table lists thethree types of activities.
We also publish the SEAMETRICAL Bulletin inedition of STEM Education.

in their daily lives and for their parents to help
with activities that produce products with higheconomic value.

D. Community Services Program

Impact of STEM Programs to Mathematics
Learning

During 2021, SEAQiM is lucky to be able toorganize activities for the teacher community(STEM-Holic Community) and the general public(Kampung Joho).

In implementing the STEM Education programfor Mathematics Learning, SEAQiM manages
activities that enable the improvement ofmathematical abilities through the following things.

Program for the teacher community to help

• Teachers are exposed to STEM activities
with a focus on mathematics that areteachers develop research related to STEM
education. While the activities in the STEM
village of Joho, are to help children apply STEM

simple enough to be conducted withprimary school students.

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STEM Education: SEAQiM’s Response during Covid-19 Pandemic for In-Service Teachers

Figure 6. STEM Education edition for SEAMETRICAL Bulletine
Table 4. Community Service on STEM Education
No

Programme

Date

Place

8

Programmes for Teacher’s Community on
STEM (STEM - Holic Community)

February – April 2021

online9Joho STEM Village

1 January – 31 December 2021

Padukuhan Joho,
Condongcatur, Depok,
Sleman, DI Yogyakarta• We shared many kinds of STEM activities
especially for children using low-costmaterials as well as ready-to-use STEM
kits. Through these activities, children
learned and apply their mathematicalknowledge to solve the problems andfinish the project. It gives them different
experiences on exploring mathematics.
• Creativity and innovation can beempowered and developed through

20

STEM activity. These two skills are very
important when they learn or solve
problems.
• Teachers were happy to do the STEM
activities. It could be the same withstudents. If students are happy when theylearn, it can help student to enjoy learning,
especially math.
• The SEAMETRICAL STEM edition bulletin
is expected to be a reference and rich

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Sumardyono

Training of Trainers: STEM-Holic Community
Figure 7. ToT for STEM-Holic Community (a teachers’ community)

Figure 8. Activities for childrens and parents on Joho STEM Village
ground for discussion for STEM education
as well as exemplary STEM activities thathas been implemented by teachers intheir mathematics classroom.
Some Result from Evaluation of STEM
Programs
Based on the program evaluationquestionnaire instrument given to participants

during and after the activity, as well as thequestionnaire given to the committee, thefollowing results were obtained.
A. Good Practices and Challenges
1. Regular course on STEM in Mathematics
Learning
Good practices:

Journal of Southeast Asian Education (Vol. 1 | Special Issue): 15 – 25 (2022)

21

STEM Education: SEAQiM’s Response during Covid-19 Pandemic for In-Service Teachers• The experience of conducting a STEM
teacher training in online setting.
Challenges:• STEM activities are usually hands-on
as well as requiring the participants toengineer their own products, work ingroup, and having discussion, so this isquite a challenge to organize in an online
setting. We managed by maximizing the
breakout room feature in Zoom, as well as
using web based platform namely moddle& padlet.
2. In-Country Course on STEM in Mathematics
Education
Good practices:• Teachers could enjoy the STEM activities.
After a long period, they were happy
to offline session to explore hands-on
activities. After the training, some of them
implemented the activities with theirstudents.
• Learning and sharing about STEM with
SILN (Indonesian school overseas)teachers from seven different countries,
each with different experience, classroom
situations and challenges, as well as
insights.
Challenges:• Despite the training locations, larger spaceand safe environment must be settled.
The training was conducted during theCovid-19 Pandemic where the situation
was not safe. Another challenge is toprovide the affordable STEM materials
so that they can do the same things withstudents.

22• Managing and maintaining attendance ofthe participants. The participants comefrom different countries with different
time zone, with as much as 6-hour timedifference from Indonesia, which makes
getting a class full of people at one time
can be really challenging, if not impossible.
3. STEM Camp
Good practices:• Teachers could enjoy the STEM activities
provided by the facilitators. After a long
period not having face to face training,they were happy to offline session to
explore hands-on activities. They enjoyed
the session with an expert from Finland.
After the training ended, some of them
implemented the activities with theirstudents.
• Get the latest information related toabout STEM approaches in math learning.
Get new knowledge about the theories
that support STEM integration in mathlearning and STEM activities that can be
implemented in the classroom.
Challenges:• Training was conducted during the Covid-19
Pandemic where the situation was not
safe. Another challenge is to provide theaffordable STEM materials so that they
can do the same things with students.
Outdoor activity can be troublesome if theweather is unpredictable. We must checkthe weather forecast.
• Some facilitators couldn’t attend thesession offline (because the pandemic orthe distance) & lack of internet connection.

Journal of Southeast Asian Education (Vol. 1 | Special Issue): 15 – 25 (2022)

Sumardyono• The duration of the workshop each day wasquite long (start from 8 am until 6.15 pm)• One of the facilitators delivered using
English, and most participants were notfluent using English.

• The workshop is the first event with onlineoffline mode conducted by SEAQiM since
the start of the pandemic in 2020
Challenges:• Participants were introduced to STEAM
and STEAM Research and updated about
Research Methodology, especially in
STEAM• Participants were guided to create
Research Proposal in STEAM• STEM activities are very hands-on andrequire quite a lot of materials. Special
arrangements need to be made foronline teachers, since the committee
cannot provide the required materials forthem. As a solution, we explained very
specifically the materials required forthe activities and asked the teachers to
prepare it themselves, which was later on
reimbursed by SEAQiM.

• Participants were introduced to the 4D
Frame, a learning toolkit that can beused in STEAM learning and Experience
Workshop.

• Managing online-offline event, especiallyduring situations that require entire
classroom interaction, such as group workand discussion.

4. Workshop on STEAM Education Research
Good practices:

Challenges:• Some of the participants had an internet
connection problem.
• Some of the facilitators used the Korean
language in their presentation, so it was
hard to understand.
• The unavailability of 4D Frame Toolkit foreach participant, so they can’t practiceduring the workshop.
5. Workshop on STEM + Computational
Thinking Learning Materials

6. International Seminar on STEAM Education
Research
Good practices:• This programme provides updated
information about STEAM education andresearch.
• The teachers share best practices ininnovating mathematics learning with
STEAM.
• Gather opportunities for educators tofoster collaboration and partnership.

Good practices:

Challenges:• In this occasion, we were able to try out the
STEM+computational thinking activities
we developed with junior high school• The duration of the seminar was quite
long (start from 9 am until 4.30 pm), since
it held in online mode.

mathematics teachers. We also discussed
the lessons with them, got their feedback,and revised the lessons accordingly.

• Some of the moderators and speakers had
an internet connection problem.

Journal of Southeast Asian Education (Vol. 1 | Special Issue): 15 – 25 (2022)

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STEM Education: SEAQiM’s Response during Covid-19 Pandemic for In-Service Teachers

7. Research Grants SEAQiM 2021 on STEAM
Good practices:

Good practices:• Facilitate teachers in conducting researchin STEAM learning.
• Facilitate teachers to communicate
the results of learning innovation
research through scientific activities andpublications.

• Joho STEM Village gives experiences topeople on STEM activities. We share some
STEM activities to Joho’s people especiallychildren and parents that relates totheir daily activities. This program brings
them new knowledge, experience andmotivation.

Challenges:• The teachers had some difficulties in
conducting the learning activity due to thePandemic Situation.
• Some of the teachers are busy with theirjob in the school so sometimes it is hard tocommunicate with them.
• There is a grantee that can’t finish theresearch grant agreement.
8. Publication SEAMETRICAL – STEM Edition
Good practices:• Providing a publication platform forteachers to share their ideas andexperience in STEM education.
Challenges:• Short timeline. The team only got October
to December (approximately 3 months) toassemble the bulletin. Therefore 3 months
is a very pressing timeline.
• Writing quality vs content quality. Deskeditors have to invest a lot of effort towork with the authors to improve thewritings.
• Workload of editorial team members.
Some editorial team members have to
divide their time with other programs.

24

9. Community Service Program

Challenges:• COVID 19 pandemic was the biggest
challenge for this program. We mustcancel and adjust some activities due tothis situation.
B. Respons of Participants to STEM program
With a Likert scale questionnaire ranging from
1-4, each participant was asked to rate several
aspects of the course/workshop program, i.e.
1. Organizing program
2. Content & delivery
3. Benefit of the program
Based on the post-course questionnaire, we
get the following result:
1. Customer Satisfaction Index (CSI) > 0.9 (in10-scale)
2. Activities and materials are useful and fun
for participants.
3. Many participants hoped that there would
be a continuation of the program.
4. Some hope that STEM activities can bedirectly related to the school curriculum.
Conclusion
Based on observations, program evaluation
results and questionnaires given to participants,

Journal of Southeast Asian Education (Vol. 1 | Special Issue): 15 – 25 (2022)

Sumardyono

here are some important notes related to the
SEAQiM program regarding STEM Education
during the pandemic.
• SEAQiM has many programs related to
STEM and received positive responses.
• STEM education is interesting and usefulfor our participants.
• Program challenges are related tolanguage, the internet connection,affordable materials, and health protocols.
• There is a need for improvement in followup programs and linkages with the school
curriculum.

Kelley, T.R., Knowles, J.G. A conceptual framework
for integrated STEM education. IJ STEM Ed 3,
11 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1186/s40594016-0046-z
Merrill, C. (2009). The future of TE masters
degrees: STEM. Presentation at the 70th
Annual International Technology Education
Association Conference, Louisville, Kentucky.
Sabine Meinck, Julian Fraillon, Rolf Strietholt. (2022).
The impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on
Education. International evidence from the
Responses to Educational Disruption Survey(REDS). UNESCO & IEA.
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February 20]

Education, 97(3), 369-387.

Journal of Southeast Asian Education (Vol. 1 | Special Issue): 15 – 25 (2022)

25

Journal of Southeast Asian Education (Vol. 1 | Special Issue): 26 – 37 (2022)

Teacher Education Past and Present:
Addressing Current Challenges for a Better Futurewww.seameo.org

SEAQIS’ Efforts in Improving Science Teacher to Keep Learning Continuity
During and Post Covid-19 Pandemic Era
Adella Anfidina Putri1*, Indrawati2, Gunawan Muhammad3 and Septian Karyana4
Research and Development Staff, SEAMEO QITEP in Science, Bandung, Indonesia
Centre Director, SEAMEO QITEP in Science, Bandung, Indonesia
3
Research and Development Staff, SEAMEO QITEP in Science, Bandung, Indonesia
4
Research and Development Staff, SEAMEO QITEP in Science, Bandung, Indonesia
1
2*Corresponding Author
Adella Anfidina Putri
Email: adella@seameo.id

ABSTRACT
Covid-19 pandemic has resulted schools closure that affects hundred million

Co-Author(s):Author 2: Dr. Indrawati
Email: indrawati@seameo.id

students around the world. As a result, education has changed drastically where

Author 3: Gunawan Muhammad
Email: gunawan@seameo.id

in delivering subject materials. They should apply various distance learning media

Author 4: Septian Karyana
E-mail: septian@seameo.id

competency to conduct science lesson during and post-pandemic era, SEAMEO

distance learning is the best option to be implemented. Therefore, it forcedteachers to extremely adapt their learning approaches, methods, or learning media
to conduct distance learning effectively. In order to improve science teachers’
QITEP in Science (SEAQIS) has conducted a survey to get the direct and factual datafrom the field. The survey was distributed online to 4676 respondents. Based on
the questionnaire, learning method used in distance learning is dominated by giving
projects, text assignments, and making videos. In addition, most of instruction are
given through WhatsApp. Survey also figure out difficulties faced by teachers inestablishing students’ engagement caused by using of distance learning platforms or
media which mostly optimise chat applications.
As one of efforts to overcome this challenge, SEAQIS developed training on
implementing digital application on science learning which has been conducted
several times. This training aims to improve teachers’ digital literacy on using
digital application that can be used to deliver science materials online. Through thistraining, teachers are able to maximize digital application from Google, Microsoft,or online assessments to develop lesson plan as well as to implement online
science learning. SEAQIS realises that the implementation of distance learning
will be more effective when teachers use interactive and interesting learning
media. Thus, SEAQIS provides an opportunity for teachers to develop learning
media through SEAQIS Research Grants programme. Through this programme, forapproximately 10 months, teachers receive research guidance to develop their

Published by SEAMEO Organization, ISSN 1513-4601 | Editorial Office: SEAMEO Secretariat, 920 Sukhumvit Road, Bangkok, Thailand.
Tel: (+662) 3910144 | Fax: (+662) 3812587 | E-mail: secretariat@seameo.org This article is under CC BY-SA License.

Adella Anfidina Putri, Indrawati, Gunawan Muhammad and Septian Karyana

proposed learning media. SEAQIS also has online, offline, and blended trainings
focusing on two themes. The themes are training on STEM learning and training
on integrating computational thinking into science learning. By organising the two
trainings, teachers are expected to be able to implement online science learningwhich provides learning experiences for students to improve their 21st century
skills. SEAQIS organises the SEAQIS webinar series as an online forum for teachers
to disseminate their best practices on online science learning. The speakers are not
only teachers but also education experts from various institutions presenting thelatest science education trends and issues. SEAQIS believes that these excellent
services can support teachers to conduct science learning during or post Covid-19
pandemic era.

Keywords: teacher support, distance learning, innovation, learning continuation

Background2020 is an important year that marks a shift inlearning and educational activities. The Covid-19
pandemic that has hit the whole world has
forced governments to formulate policies that
support the implementation of social distancing
to minimise the transmission of the virus that
attacks the respiratory system. Social distancing
itself is defined as an action when one individual
maintains a distance from another individual
or takes a position relatively far to the other.
This includes avoiding all kinds of gatherings orgatherings that involve many people at one time
(Haqien & Rahman, 2020).
One of the significant impacts of theimplementation of social restrictions on social
life is the development of policies on activities
at home. For example, Work from Home (WFH)
is carried out by agencies and companies aswell as the School from Home (SFH) policy isrecommended by the Ministry of Educationin Indonesia. Based on previous researchfrom Livingston, it is stated that government
regulations will greatly affect the implementationof learning by teachers because these regulations

educators/teachers is forced to adapt andchange their teaching model as expected by thegovernment. This statement is clearly provenduring the Covid-19 pandemic where educators
around the world need to drastically change theimplementation of learning, from face-to-facelearning to distance learning/online learning. With
this change in learning activities, educators are
required to adapt their teaching models, develop
new learning strategies, and present material thatcan still be accepted by students effectively (Hill &Fitzgerald, 2020) (Livingston, 2018).
In the implementation, it is assumed thatin several big cities such as Jakarta, Bandung,and Surabaya, educators and students alreadyhave the experience and ability to do Distance
Learning (DL). However, in most other regionsthat have low levels of economic growth andhuman resources, learning with DL is considered
as something unfamiliar and not prepared atall. For schools that are accustomed to use
technological devices in teaching and learning
activities, of course, they do not face many
obstacles. However, this is not the case for

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Seaqis’ Efforts in Improving Science Teacher to Keep Learning Continuity During and Post Covid-19 Pandemic Era

schools that have never implemented DL before,
especially in areas with limited facilities both on
the device and network side (Arifa, 2020).
Not only problems in terms of facilities in theimplementation of DL, but there are also often
obstacles or incompatibility with learning thatshould be carried out from the side of educators.
There is a tendency to misunderstand that theteacher’s responsibility in implementing DL ismuch lighter compared to traditional learning(Semradova & Hubackova, 2016). Whereas
based on research conducted by Dursun, et al.
(2013) the need to change learning strategies,
limited equipment, personnel, resources,
and limitations of educational technology, as
well as the skills and qualities of teachers arecommon problems that need to be consideredin the implementation of DL (Dursun, Oskaybaş,& Gökmen, 2013). This is also supported byresearch by Nurmukhametov, et al. (2015)
which states that the use of internet/e-learning
media has considerable obstacles, network
connections, and technical errors such as server
down and errors can hinder the success oflearning (Nurmukhametov et al., 2015). (Sari,
Muhammad Rifki, & Karmila, 2020)
Moreover, this DL activity is also a new learning
experience for the majority of students. In theprocess, several online-based learning activities
lead to a lack of effective learning for students
due to the limited time the teacher has inexplaining the material to the ineffectiveness ofthe question and answer session. Then there arealso technical problems because not all students
have smartphones and do not understand theoperation of downloading assignments fromeducators. As quoted by Syaharuddin, S. (2020),
many obstacles arise from students in online-

28

based learning, ranging from technical problems
to questions about the learning process. The
problems faced by the students, for instances,are poor internet connection, expensive costin using internet, complicated operation oflearning applications, as well as the lack ofstudent’s participation when learning takes
place through applications (Syaharuddin, 2020).
The implementation of distance learning also
requires good communication between students,
parents, and the school due to the limitations
described above and it is not possible for students,
parents, and schools to meet face-to-face during apandemic (Sari, Muhammad Rifki, & Karmila , 2020).
In general, the implementation of distancelearning during this pandemic is assumed to stillrequire a lot of support from various parties inorder to be carried out effectively. SEAQIS as an
institution with the main task of improving thequality of educators and education staff feels
they have a responsibility to participate in the
success of the implementation of DL during thispandemic, starting with conducting a preliminary
survey on the conditions of implementing DL
to the obstacles experienced by all parties
involved in DL activities, starting from teachers,
students, schools to parents. It is hoped that thispreliminary research can help SEAQIS to design
programmes that are targeted at the needs ofteachers and students to implement DL properly.
Methods
Research Design
The research method used in this study is aquantitative descriptive method. The research
design focused on data collection with online
questionnaires and quantitative data analysis.

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Adella Anfidina Putri, Indrawati, Gunawan Muhammad and Septian Karyana

The research was carried out in three stages,
namely: (1) the preparation phase, (2) the
implementation phase, and (3) data processing
and analysis. Generally, the activities carried out
are as follows.
1. Preparation
At this stage, three activities were carriedout, namely the preparation and developmentof research instruments. The development of
instruments includes preparation of instruments,
validation of research instruments by experts,
and revision of instruments.

tests, then divided into level and subject group,
each group of respondents were classified
and analysed separately. The distribution of
respondents is presented by remote sensing
devices. The entire data is then analysed toget an overview of science learning during
the pandemic. Result of this mapping is used
to formulate SEAQIS’s programme to support
teacher to keep learning continuity during andpost Covid-19 pandemic.
Result and Discussion
Participants Demography

2. Implementation
This stage is the stage of data collection.
At this stage, questionnaires were distributed
through the SEAQIS network through email,WhatsApp groups, SEAQIS social media, andothers communication media.
3. Data Processing and Analysis
At this stage the researchers conducteddata processing by using statistical softwareand remote sensing software. After the datacollected, the programmes are designed tosupport teachers in pandemic era.

The questionnaire was collected through an
online platform using Google Form (https://s.
id/surveyqis) from 12 June to 12 July 2020. The
survey conducted to find out several things,
including the readiness of teachers, principals,
students, as well as parents/guardians ofstudents to carry out learning in the new normal
era. To further dissemination, the questionnaire
was distributed using a WhatsApp group andforwarded from group to group to expand thereach of the survey.

This research was distributed online andcollected responses from 4674 respondents
including principals, parents/guardians ofstudents, teachers and students all overIndonesia.

4674 data were collected from thequestionnaire. The respondents included
principals, parents/guardians of students,
teachers, and students all over Indonesia.
However, the distribution of respondents is nothomogenous and dominated by the respondents
from Java (Figure 1, the area with the most
respondents has a deeper colour).

Data Analysis

Figure 2 and 3 are presented the respondent’s
status and educational level. The number ofParticipants

The data obtained from the results of thequestionnaire carried out descriptive statisticalrespondents who participated was dominatedby students, especially high school students,
while there were only a few high school

Journal of Southeast Asian Education (Vol. 1 | Special Issue): 26 – 37 (2022)

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Seaqis’ Efforts in Improving Science Teacher to Keep Learning Continuity During and Post Covid-19 Pandemic Era

Figure 1. Distribution of Respondent

Figure 2. Respondent Proportion based on Status

Figure 3. Respondent Proportion based on Educational Level

30

Journal of Southeast Asian Education (Vol. 1 | Special Issue): 26 – 37 (2022)

Adella Anfidina Putri, Indrawati, Gunawan Muhammad and Septian Karyana

principals who participated. From all categories,
the number of principals is seen to be the least,
this is considered as a normal distribution since
one principal supervises several teachers andmany students.
Data Analysis
Readiness of School Health Facilities
Most of the teachers and principals involvedin the survey reported that the school where they
were assigned did not meet the requirement ofhealth protocol facilities (Fig. 4). The readinessof health protocol facilities was low at thejunior high and elementary levels where 61%of teachers reported that their schools had not
met the health protocol facilities requirement.
At the SMA/SMK (upper secondary/vocational
level), the readiness of school health protocol
facilities has the highest readiness. There are
73% of principals and 53% of teachers who
have the highest readiness. However, thesurvey was conducted in June-July 2020 when
the information and support of health facilitiesin school is still in dissemination process. In

2022, the health facilities protocol in school
are assumed to be more well-prepared. Whenthe survey is conducted, the bare minimum ofschool health facilities/protocols are providing
facilities for hand washing using soap and wateror alcohol-based hand sanitizer; cleaning theroom and school environment regularly (at least
once a day) with disinfectant; and conducting
initial screening in the form of measuring bodytemperature for all guests.
Dissemination of Health Protocols
Most school principals have disseminatedhealth protocols to school residents, 83%
of school principals have disseminated thisinformation. Unfortunately, the acceptanceand understanding of health protocols inschools by teachers, students, and parents isstill considerably low (Fig. 5). Related to thedissemination, there is a data discrepancy
between the principals’ acceptance compared toteachers’, students’, and parents’. 83% principals
stated that they already disseminated the healthprotocols to the schools communities but only
65% of teachers admit that they have received

Figure 4. Principals and Teachers Survey for Readiness of School Health Facilities
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Seaqis’ Efforts in Improving Science Teacher to Keep Learning Continuity During and Post Covid-19 Pandemic Era

information of health protocols at school. In
terms of understanding and acceptance, thesituation is getting worse at the student level.
Despite the information that students havereceived the information of health protocol at
school, students’ understanding and acceptancetoward health protocols in schools are thelowest compared to teachers’ and principals.
Learning Process in Pandemic
Most of the science teachers as respondents
said that DL was not effective. There are only
8% of teachers who consider that DL is effective
to conduct. The ineffectiveness of DL cannot
be separated from the obstacles experienced
in its implementation. The big point in DL’s
obstacles lies in the availability of facilities andinfrastructure such as online learning tools andthe internet as well as the difficulty in establishinglearning engagement with students. Students
who are getting bored do not pay attention andeven behave impolitely to their teachers in theimplementation of online learning.

The difficulty of engagement establishement
is reflected in the use of distance learning
media, which mostly use chat application media(WhatsApp and SMS) and rarely use LMS (Fig.
6). The use of online quizzes is also very minor.
The learning videos that have been provided are
not widely used. Based on the data, not morethan half of the teachers as respondents who
use the learning videos that have been provided
on platforms such as YouTube or Rumah Belajar.
It is quite surprising that there are almost 5% ofteachers who still use SMS as a distance learning
medium while the Ministry of Education andCulture only provide internet quota for teachers
to help them in conducting DL which cannot be
used to send SMS.
Not only the media that dominated by chatapplications which not really support students’learning experience. The methods used byteacher also dominated by students’ centred
approach with very limited intervention fromteacher. In classroom situation when teacher
can interact directly with students, the student

Figure 5. School Communities’ Understanding of Health Protocols

32

Journal of Southeast Asian Education (Vol. 1 | Special Issue): 26 – 37 (2022)

Adella Anfidina Putri, Indrawati, Gunawan Muhammad and Septian Karyana

Figure 6. Media Used in Distance Learningthat the teacher has provided. Based on thepie diagram (Fig. 7), virtual practicum, online
games, and online discussion are very rarely
used as the DL method (less than 1%). This isreally worrying, because there is very little useof virtual labs, which even before the Covid-19
pandemic hit, were accessible for free (Fig. 7).

Figure 7. Methods Used in Distance Learning

centred is favourable. But in the term of distancelearning when students’ need more guidancesometimes this approach is not effective. The
learning methods used in distance learning are
dominated by giving projects, text assignments
and making videos. Giving text assignments suchas summarising the videos given or explanations
that have been delivered can indeed be usedas evidence that students pay attention to
the teacher, videos or other forms of material

The next question focuses on scienceteachers’ perception on what subject/materials
is considerably easier and harder to explain in
DL. There are 204 science teachers questioned
the difficulty to conduct a materials that
required a practicum, while another 169 feltthat all materials could be delivered in DL mode.
There is a clear discontinuity in the survey
results, where 169 out of 920 respondents
said that “everything is possible” while theother 751 teachers had difficulty in delivering
material to students online. This means that
there is information or teaching techniquesthat are unknown or not conveyed to the other

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Seaqis’ Efforts in Improving Science Teacher to Keep Learning Continuity During and Post Covid-19 Pandemic Era

751 respondents. Practical work and practicum
being the type of materials that were chosen
the most as materials that are difficult to convey
online, indeed online students are not as free
as offline learning to take advantage of school
facilities in carrying out practical activities
such as laboratory equipment and teachers’
support. However, for the introduction ofconcepts, teachers can use virtual labs that havebeen provided by several institutions for free,
unfortunately the use of virtual laboratories
cannot be used to improve students’ practicalskills. It is quite worrying that other materials
can be delivered without practicum, such as theconcept of moles, waves, cells, as well as thematerials that required calculations, which have
many ways to teach them.
To support this problems, the questionnaire
was designed to figure out the teachers’
expectation on supports that SEAQIS canprovide. The types of support that teachers
expect from SEAQIS include content that
contains learning videos as well as virtuallaboratories, training on the use of IT and online
learning applications, pedagogy training suchas STEM training on distance learning and tips
for distance learning that are not boring forstudents. It is unfortunate that some teachers
actually expect the health equipment assistancefrom SEAQIS which is not SEAQIS’ work area.
Regarding to the video content and virtuallaboratories, there are actually many available
online and free from home learning platforms
such as YouTube, PhET, as well as Go-labz. The
virtual lab provider platforms such as PhET evenprovide how to use virtual lab worksheets invarious languages, some of which have beentranslated into Bahasa. Considering the high34

demand for virtual content and its unsuitableavailability, it is suspected that there is a lackof literacy regarding digital learning content
among science teachers. In response to the lackof literacy regarding digital learning content
among science teachers, SEAQIS has held various
trainings on online learning in collaboration withrelated agencies, foundations and institutions
which are presented in the next section.
SEAQIS’ Efforts in Improving Science Teacher
to Keep Learning Continuity
SEAQIS has an important role to improveteachers and education personnel in Southeast
Asia. As a centre of excellence, during the fiscal
year 2020/2021 and 2021/2022, SEAQIS hasdeveloped two innovative programmes namely
Integrating Computational Thinking into Science
Learning Programme and Innovation on STEM
Immersion. Moreover, to support teachers tokeep learning continuity, SEAQIS has conducted
several activities, which are:
1. Conduct webinars with various themes
to support the implementation of
distance learning and increase educators’knowledge. In response to Covid-19
pandemic situation, SEAQIS organise anumber of webinars to improve scienceteachers and education personnel
competencies in Southeast Asia. Thereare 25 webinars with various theme that
conducted by SEAQIS from July 2020 until
June 2021. The webinar attended by morethan 5000 participants.
2. Conducting the training on distancelearning application. (Google Classroom,
Google Meet, Google Form, etc.).

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Adella Anfidina Putri, Indrawati, Gunawan Muhammad and Septian Karyana

Referring to the data collection, mostteacher is using chat application as learning
methods. SEAQIS provides training to
improve teachers’ ability in organising DL
with introduction of learning applicationsuch as LMS, online quiz application, andvideo conference application. The training
is conducted online and offline for teacher
in Indonesia.
3. Conduct the SEAQIS Research Grants
with the theme: innovation of learningin pandemic era. SEAQIS Research Grants(SRG) 2020 and 2021 were held as an effort
to improve competency of primary to
secondary science teachers in Southeast
Asia countries, especially in research field.
The improvement of the competency is
expected to have positive impact to theteachers and the quality of education. Dueto Covid-19 Pandemic, in 2020 and 2021,
the SRG was held online. There were morethan 150 proposals submitted to SEAQIS,
40 and 50 proposals were accepted as SRG
2020 and SRG 2021 grantees respectively.
4. To support training course and remotelearning implementation, SEAQIS produced
teaching and learning materials. There areten modules and four learning videos thatcan be used as learning resources.
Based on the survey findings, SEAQIS meetsthe challenges by conducting several programes.
They are: 1) training on implementing digitalapplication on science learning to improveteachers’ digital literacy on using digitalapplication in online learning and its assessment;
2) developing learning media through SEAQIS
Research Grants programme; 3) training on
STEM learning and integrating computational

thinking into science learning to provide
learning experiences for students to improvetheir 21st century skills; 4) webinar series as an
online forum for teachers to disseminate theirbest practices on online science learning. The
authors were enriched by education experts
from various institutions presenting the latest
science education trends and issues.
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Journal of Southeast Asian Education (Vol. 1 | Special Issue): 38 – 47 (2022)

Teacher Education Past and Present:
Addressing Current Challenges for a Better Futurewww.seameo.org

Learning Through Making – A Proposed Sustainable Education
Shah Jahan Assanarkutty1* and Loh Su Ling2
SEAMEO RECSAM, Penang, Malaysia

1,2*Corresponding Author
Shah Jahan Assanarkutty
Email: shahjahan@recsam.edu.my
Co-Author(s):Author 2: Loh Su Ling
E-mail: lohsuling@recsam.edu.my

ABSTRACTThe COVID-19 pandemic has taken a heavy toll on practically every facet ofsociety, including schooling. However, teachers are willing and able to cope as
online educators despite their lack of experience with online teaching. It is vital totransit to a thriving stage of remote teaching, learning, and teacher education as
we go past the survival phase of online teaching and learning. A new paradigm forlearning and teaching is needed due to the current struggle to keep pace with thedisruptive nature of technological and social change. We need a pedagogy thatleans into the future, inclining towards what is arising and might be needed rather
than resting securely in the understanding and skills of yesterday. We propose
making, a process of creating something, as a sustainable type of learning as it
can retain the acquired knowledge and skills after initial exposure. It involves
making the best use of available resources to support a healthy existence andensuring a viable future for all. Sustainable learning attempts to equip learners
with knowledge, skills, methods, tools and dispositions to create and sustain
conditions whatever their endeavour and wherever they work. Making allows
students to take on multiple roles as mathematicians, scientists, designers,
or makers, guiding the knowledge, skills, and practices to solve issues. Making
enables learning to be more relevant and meaningful as it features a learningby-demand model. Making also encourages learners to understand what makes
technology work, rather than be satisfied simply consuming technology. Learning
through making is a continuous, enduring and proactive learning as it does
not focus on the accumulation of knowledge and skills but more on building
resilience, responsiveness and change-readiness capabilities. Through making,learners learn to anticipate challenges and opportunities that might arise anddevelop and prepare by choice and design, leading to learning and innovation,rather than being held hostage to change and environmental turbulence. One of
the central aspects that sustain learning is values and ethics. Learners should beaware of the making process, intention and purpose, cost, and consequences tothe environment. It should not be purely based on profit and short-term relief

Published by SEAMEO Organization, ISSN 1513-4601 | Editorial Office: SEAMEO Secretariat, 920 Sukhumvit Road, Bangkok, Thailand.
Tel: (+662) 3910144 | Fax: (+662) 3812587 | E-mail: secretariat@seameo.org This article is under CC BY-SA License.

Shah Jahan Assanarkutty and Loh Su Ling

but because it is needed, beneficial and has no long term negative effect on theenvironment and humanity.

Keywords: making, learning through making, sustainable learning, sustainable education, ethics, values

Introduction
The Covid-19 outbreak caused substantial
upheaval in many educational institutions’ usual
teaching procedures. Schools, colleges, andinstitutions worldwide were forced to close forweeks or months, forcing 1.37 billion pupils tostay home. Educators were expected to become
online instructors in a matter of days. Many issues
developed as educators moved from traditional
face-to-face learning to digital platforms forremote teaching, requiring swift responses andpolicy and procedure adjustments to deliver
equitable and acceptable remote learning to
all students. Parents juggled work demands toensure their children had access to instruction
from home. Students struggled to stay engaged
and connected with their teachers and peers
online as school leaders and teachers rushed tocompletely redesign their educational delivery
models.
Many educators displayed agency in this case,which refers to the capacity for teaching given
the resources and restrictions of the working
environment and takes into account instructors’
personal views, values, and characteristics(Gudmundsdottir & Hathaway, 2020). Teacher
educators responded quickly to the need toprepare for teaching in a COVID-19 future, doing
what they do best: figuring out how to respondto support in-service teachers’ professional
development successfully.
Despite that many teachers are willing andable to cope as online educators despite theirlack of experience with online teaching, it is vitalto transit to a thriving stage of remote teaching,learning, and teacher education as we go past thesurvival phase of online teaching and learning.
A new paradigm for learning and teaching isneeded due to the current struggle to keep pacewith the disruptive nature of technological andsocial change. We need a pedagogy that leans
into the future, inclining towards what is arisingand might be needed rather than resting securely
in the understandings and skills of yesterday.
We propose making, a process of creating
something, as a sustainable type of learning as
it can retain the acquired knowledge and skills
after initial exposure. It involves making the bestuse of available resources to support a healthy
existence and ensuring a viable future for all.
This paper will describe briefly sustainable
learning education (SLE) and learning throughmaking or maker-centered learning. This isfollowed by a proposal of making as a typeof sustainable learning education, which canwithstand disruptive changes and lean towards
the future. In addition, two maker-centeredteaching and learning training programmes that
SEAMEO RECSAM carried out will be described.
Sustainable Learning Education
Sustainable learning education (SLE) isdefined as knowledge retained after initial
exposure and may include a “learning to learn”

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39

Learning Through Making – A Proposed Sustainable Education

process (Hays & Reinders, 2020). It is basedon establishing, developing, and maintaining
humans’ learning processes (Graham, Berman,& Bellert, 2015). This differs from teaching forsustainability or sustainable learning, which
focuses on retaining and renewing the earth’s
resources. Sustainable learning or pedagogy
is content-specific, imparting knowledge andunderstanding of a sustainable world. On theother hand, SLE refers to curricula, teaching, andlearning methods that provide the knowledge
and skills to maintain learning in different
circumstances (Ben-Eliyahu, 2021). Continuous,deliberate, responsive, and proactive learning
are all components of sustainable learning in

future, focusing on what is needed rather thanrelying on yesterday’s knowledge and skills. It
seeks to learn in the present, creating ‘learning
moments’, rapidly adapting and disseminating
the learning in a recurring and quickening cycle.
Sustainable learning education emphasises selfsufficiency, consciousness, and sustainability. A
sustainability curriculum should aspire towards
self-sufficiency and consciousness in design,delivery, and outcome. It is self-sustaining andself-governing, requiring few external resources.
Apart from that, it is based on and produces
consciousness – vigilant attentiveness andmindfulness, constant awareness of internaland external conditions, and continuous

which the learner effectively builds and rebuilds
her or his knowledge and skills foundationas circumstances change (Hays & Reinders,2020). It is similar to lifelong learning in thisway. However, when compared to lifelong
learning, sustainable learning is differentiatedby conscious and intentional learning in thepresent amid an ongoing flow of circumstancesand developing possibilities (Hays & Reinders,2020). It aims to equip learners with knowledge,
skills, methods, tools, and dispositions tocreate and sustain conditions whatever theirendeavour and wherever they work (Graham etal., 2015).

evaluation of the effectiveness of one’s actionsin the world, all filtered through the lenses of
ethics, responsibility, and sustainability. Finally,
it provides learners with a commitment toconsciousness and the willingness to act on
relevant observation.

Hays and Reinders (2020) identified
numerous characteristics of sustainable learning
education (SLE). Firstly, it is less regimented
and “fixed” than traditional education, and it
operates more spontaneously and responsively.
Sustainably learning education evolves,
integrating sustainability concepts and goals
into its design and delivery. It may also be
described as a type of pedagogy that looks to the40

SLE is aimed to equip learners with skills andstrategies through inquiry, self-assessment andevaluation to sustain learning throughout life
as the world changes. Ben-Eliyahu (2021) listed
the components of SLE: active learning, futureorientation, independent learning, collaborative
learning, relearning, and transferability. It
teaches learners to be open-minded, inquire,reuse, renew, and rebuild to cope with the everchanging technologies and circumstances that
require learning and relearning.
Learning Through Making
Making is a term that encompasses a wide
range of activities that involves constructing,deconstructing, or remixing of the products

Journal of Southeast Asian Education (Vol. 1 | Special Issue): 38 – 47 (2022)

Shah Jahan Assanarkutty and Loh Su Ling

(Daugherty, 2013; Martinez & Stager, 2019;
Sheridan et al., 2014). Examples of making
activities are woodworking, cooking, welding,robotics, construction, programming, andphysical computing. It involves the personaland hands-on nature of building or adapting
objects for the simple pleasure of figuring out
how things work (Honey & Kanter, 2013). To
date, many making activities are associated withthe maker movement or makerspace, and many
focus on working and learning with technology(Daugherty, 2013; Martinez & Stager, 2019).
Martin (2015) conceptualised making as a classof activities focused on designing, building andmodifying material objects for playful or useful

not is used later (Gershenfeld, 2007). Martin(2015) listed several reasons why making is avaluable learning activity. Making aligns withmany STEM education features, especially theengineering practices. It also provides learners
opportunities to learn technological tools forbuilding and thinking. In making, learners learn
from the actions of their creations, learning
driven by recursive feedback. The playfulness
and experimentation in making, leads to thedevelopment of conceptual knowledge andpromotes adaptability in the face of challenges.
Apart from that, making advocates a growthmindset, where anyone can learn the skills
needed to complete any project they canends. It is oriented towards making some productthat can be used, interacted or demonstrated.
He further described that making often involves
traditional craft and hobby techniques such as
woodwork and sewing. It also often involves
using digital technologies such as laser cuttersand 3D printers.

imagine given the effort and resources.

Students who participate in making
activities can take on various roles such as
scientists, designers, or mathematicians, who
use applicable knowledge, skills, and practices
to address challenges in the making process(Martin, 2015). Applying various tools in themaking process, such as 3D printers, solderingirons, and software engages students in handson learning and problem solving and helps themacquire technological and computational literacy(Kafai et al., 2014). Students are encouraged to
let their creativity be guided by their interests
and abilities, promoting autonomy and control.
It emphasises learning-on-demand, whichmakes learning more relevant and meaningful,rather than a set curriculum that may or may

Making as a sustainable learning education
In schools, making can be carried out asactivities for project-based learning for scienceand mathematics in the classroom. Besides, it canbe carried out as after-school or co-curriculum
activities to complement the classroom teaching
and learning. There are many making activities
related to makerspace or maker-centeredprojects carried out in school documented
such as described by Blackley, Rahmawati,
Fitriani, Sheffield, & Koul (2018), Hsu, Baldwin,& Ching (2017), Kafai, Fields, & Searle (2014)
and Valente & Blikstein (2019). However, oneof the significant challenges of learning online
during the Covid-19 pandemic, especially inteaching and learning science, is the difficultyof carrying out hands-on science experiments
and projects. Teachers and students cannot
access the school facilities such as laboratory,
computer laboratory and workshop to use thetools and materials.

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Learning Through Making – A Proposed Sustainable Education

Nevertheless, making is an activity that canhappen anywhere and anytime. It can take place
at home and encompasses various interestbased activities such as cooking, baking, sewing,
woodwork, robotic, electrical, electronics,
programming, metalwork, and more, using theavailable resources and material. It can be asustainable learning experience since it entails
deliberate and intentional learning in the present
amidst a constant flow of changing situations
and opportunities (Hays & Reinders, 2020). The
process of making engages the learners in handson learning and problem solving and further
equip them with knowledge and skills that canbe retained (Graham et al., 2015). The problems
encountered during the making process can bevaluable ‘learning moments,’ in which learning
occurs in a cyclical and accelerating manner(Hays & Reinders, 2020). Making can be alearning activity that can happen throughout
our lifetime. It can withstand the ever-changing
external environment and circumstances as
it involves modes of thinking, creating andproblem-solving skills which are skills andstrategies to sustain learning. It also involved
the active learning notion of renewing andrelearning relevant knowledge and strategies
during the making process (Ben-Eliyahu, 2021).
In-service Teacher Professional Development
In considering making as one type ofsustainable learning education and its benefit
in the educational context, there is a growing
trend of the maker movement and emerging
digital fabrication technologies (Jones, Cohen,
Schad, Caratachea, & Smith, 2020; Vossoughi& Bevan, 2014). Educators are beginning to
adopt making activities in teaching and learning,

42

which involves building and testing devices
and applying them for purposeful courses(Vossoughi & Bevan, 2014). Making activities are
increasingly integrated into formal educational
environments, especially hands-on and projectbased learning in various subjects. Thus, there
is a need to design and implement professional
development related to making and integrating
making activities into teachers’ practices tosupport students’ learning.
Because of that, SEAMEO RECSAM
conducted several in-service teachers’ training
or professional development programmes onlearning through making during the Controlled
Movement Order (MCO) due to Covid-19
Pandemic here whereby schools were closed,
and most of the people were required to stayat home. In November 2018, the STEM Planningand Design Learning (PaDL) Framework wasconceptualised during the Teaching to Transformweek-long regional workshop organisedand conducted by SEAMEO RECSAM withcollaborators from Monash University Australia
The STEM PaDL Framework consists of twomodels – one for Teacher Lesson Planning andone for Student Design Learning. The Teachers
Planning model comprises four stages, namely:
create enthusiasm, planning, design learning
process and reflection. On the other hand, thefour in the Design Learning process model forstudents are empathising, developing designideas, prototyping/modelling, and proposing
solution. Diagram 1 presents the summary of
the STEM PaDL framework.
Two Training of Trainers (TOT) workshops
were held to evaluate the STEM Planningand Design Learning (PaDL) Framework. The
first workshop, which included eight RECSAM

Journal of Southeast Asian Education (Vol. 1 | Special Issue): 38 – 47 (2022)

Shah Jahan Assanarkutty and Loh Su Ling

Diagram 1: STEM Planning and Design Learning (PaDL) Framework
Science Specialists, was held on April 6 and8, 2021, while the second workshop, which
included a group of science and mathematics
teachers from one of Penang’s schools, was heldon April 20-21, 2021. This group of teachers
made up the Lesson Demonstration Team, which
took part in an online school tryout. “Used Face
Masks: A Waste Management Crisis” is a lesson
exemplar prepared by the Demonstration Team.
This theme was chosen to highlight the real-lifesocial and health issue of students in Penang
Island and Malaysia dealing with abandoned
face masks during the COVID-19 outbreak. The
science, mathematics, and design teachers
used the Google Meet platform to conduct
an online trial run activities session with thestudents for two days. The Demonstration Teamdevised the instructional sequences for eachsession. Due to the home learning, the students
attempted to find solutions by developing asketch to gather used face masks distributed
over the neighbourhood. Diagram 2 exhibits
examples of student sketches created during
the online class. During the prototyping andmodelling stage, the students construct the
prototype based on the sketch, using materials
easily available in their house. Diagram 3 shows
examples of the prototype constructed by thestudents during the class. The results of thisresearch are currently being published in one of
the education journals.
Teachers can freely modify the STEM PaDL
framework until it works in their context andenvironment because it is only suggestive
rather than prescriptive. Educators can use thisframework as a guide to conduct STEM-related
making activities with students during formal
teaching and learning.
SEAMEO RECSAM also conducted a workshop
on ‘Learning Through Making – An introduction
to STEM Makerspace’ for in-service educators.
This workshop aimed for educators toexperience making activities or maker-centeredprojects on electric circuits, a common topic inlower secondary science. Educators had handson experience in soldering skills used in manyelectrical and electronic projects. Finally, they
designed a level-appropriate maker-centeredproject that applies their science content. A
special feature of this workshop was introducing
3D printer in making and designing a simple
electrical product. Teachers were exposed tobasic skills in 3D printing as this is one of thewidely used fabrication technologies in thecurrent educational context. Diagram 4, Diagram

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Learning Through Making – A Proposed Sustainable Education

Diagram 2: Students’ sketch of the design of the solution in the online class

Diagram 3: Students constructed the prototype based on their sketch

44

Journal of Southeast Asian Education (Vol. 1 | Special Issue): 38 – 47 (2022)

Shah Jahan Assanarkutty and Loh Su Ling

Diagram 4: Participants practising the soldering skills

Diagram 5: Participants create simple electrical products from recycled material
5, Diagram 6 and Diagram 7 show some of the
making activities and product during the trainingfor ‘Learning Through Making – An introduction
to STEM Makerspace’
Conclusion
One of the central aspects that sustain
learning is values and ethics. Apart from all
the learning benefits of making activities,
it can also inculcate values central in alllearning processes. Educators or parents canintentionally make aware of the making process
to the learners, its intention and purpose,cost, and consequences to the environment.
It should not be purely based on profit andshort-term relief but because it is needed,beneficial and has no long-term negative effecton the environment and humanity. Making isa learner-centered participatory activity that
does not focus on teacher-centered information
presentations (Jones et al., 2020). For educators
to effectively implement making activities inclass or after school, they must first experience
maker-centered learning activities. SEAMEORECSAM seeks to provide in-service teacherswith opportunities to engage in the making
process especially aligned with project-basedlearning in science and mathematics. Besides,
we hope to investigate the impact of making
activities in science project-based learning in
the classroom and online teaching and learning.
We also intend to evaluate the strengths andproblems to formulate the right interventions
in future training on making activities foreducators. We hope that learners of all ages will

Journal of Southeast Asian Education (Vol. 1 | Special Issue): 38 – 47 (2022)

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Learning Through Making – A Proposed Sustainable Education

Diagram 6: Exploring 3D printing

Diagram 7: The 3D printed electrical productfrom the participants

engage in making as one way of learning in all
circumstances and throughout their lifetime.
Indeed, learning through making can be one
way of sustainable learning education, not only
equipping learners with the 21st-century skills
but also inculcating values and ethics that aremuch needed in this age

Daugherty, D. (2013). The maker mindset. In M
Honey & D. E. Kanter (Eds.), Design, make,play: Growing the next generation of STEM
innovators (pp. 7–11). New York, NY, USA:
Routledge.
Graham, L., Berman, J., & Bellert, A. (2015).
Sustainable learning : inclusive practices for21st century classrooms. Port Melbourne,

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STEM Innovators. Routledge.

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Hsu, Y. C., Baldwin, S., & Ching, Y. H. (2017). Learning

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Journal of Southeast Asian Education (Vol. 1 | Special Issue): 48 – 52 (2022)

Teacher Education Past and Present:
Addressing Current Challenges for a Better Futurewww.seameo.org

Innovations in In-Service Teacher Training during the COVID -19
Pandemic at SEAMEO RETRAC in Vietnam
Ho Thanh My Phuong*Director, SEAMEO RETRAC, Vietnam*Corresponding Author
Ho Thanh My Phuong
E-mail:htmphuong@vnseameo.org

ABSTRACTSEAMEO Regional Training Center (SEAMEO RETRAC) is a regional training center
located in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam and among its missions is to offer in-service
teacher training in Vietnam and the Southeast Asian Region. During the two yearsof the COVID-19 pandemic, SEAMEO RETRAC had to quickly transform its operationand training modality to ensure the implementation of the training curriculum
and at the same achieve the quality of the training programs. Lots of innovativechanges have been applied to in-service teacher training at the center. This paper
will describe how SEAMEO RETRAC responded to the challenges caused by the
pandemic in order to implement teacher training programs in Vietnam and theregion. This paper will also present the good practices regarding innovation inteacher education and at the same time indicate lessons learned from exercising
innovative educational platforms for teacher training during the pandemic. Policy
recommendations will also be provided to enhance in-service teacher training in
the post-COVID-19 pandemic, taking into consideration the opportunities brought
about by the innovation.

Keywords: teacher training, innovation, online teaching, online teacher education, in-service teacher training, SEAMEO RETRAC

Introduction
Started from the begining of the year 2020,
the COVID-19 hit many countries in the world
including Vietnam. Most countries in the world
experienced unprecedented total or partial
lockdown which led to immediate school closure(Florer & Swennen, 2020). Teachers and students
had to learn how to adapt to remote teaching

and learning and this is also true for teacher
education. Accoring to Allen, Rowan and Singh(2020), teachers and teacher educators aretransitioning through an uncertain time in theirprofession and their lives and the rapid move toonline mode of delivery has led to significantly
intensifined workloads for them.

Published by SEAMEO Organization, ISSN 1513-4601 | Editorial Office: SEAMEO Secretariat, 920 Sukhumvit Road, Bangkok, Thailand.
Tel: (+662) 3910144 | Fax: (+662) 3812587 | E-mail: secretariat@seameo.org This article is under CC BY-SA License.

Ho Thanh My Phuong

In the context of the COVID-19 pandemic,teacher education has to adapt to the situationof restriction in physical interaction in classroom
activities as well as teaching practicum.
Teacher education had to move to new waysof teaching and learning to prepare teachers
for a world marked by uncertainty (Flores &Gago, 2020). Among the issues caused by the
COVID-19 pandemic are the learning loss andunpredictable combinations of online learning,
blended learning and classroom learning.
The need for a comprehensive view of online
education which integrates digital technology tosupport teaching and learning has become more
important than ever (Flores & Gago, 2020).
In many higher educational institutions andschools, teachers and students were not really
ready to adapt their teaching and learningwith digital technology. This happened toteacher education including in-service teacher
training. The transition from face to face toonline teaching has experienced pedagogicalchallenges in terms of teaching mthods andassessment strategies and tools (Flores & Gago,
2020). According to Cutri, Mena & Whiting(2020), assessment while teaching online
was of a challenge and the faculty desired toknow how to do formative and summative
assessment of student learning while teaching
online.
Regading innovations in teacher education in
the time of the Covid-19 pandemic, Scull, Phillips,
Sharma and Garnier (2020) mentioned theconversion from face to face to online courses,
including synchronous and asynchronous
learning opportunities. Accessibility andflexibility in the way the content was designed
and delivered through out the training course

was very necessary to ensure success of teacher
education.
SEAMEO RETRAC began its operationsin October, 1996, under the functions andresponsibilities of an agreement between the
Government of Vietnam and the Southeast
Asian Ministers of Education Organization(SEAMEO), with the mission of assisting SEAMEOMember Countries in identifying and addressing
issues of education. Among the core activities
implemented by SEAMEO RETRAC is the inservice teacher training. In Vietnam , SEAMEORETRAC has been assigned by the Ministry of
Education and Training to conduct in-service
teacher training under the National Foreign
Languages Project for serveral provinces in thesouth of Vietnam.
The National Foreign Languages Project isthe first large scale effort by the Vietnamese
government to improve the instruction of andthrough foreign languages primarily English
within Educational system. English language
proficiency and English language teaching
methodology are two focused areas that weoffered in in-service teacher training in 2020
and 2021 during the COVID-19 pandemic.
A survey on the in-service teachers
participating in the training programs was
conducted. We got a return rate of over 80
percent of teachers who answered our on-line
questionnaires and we also interviewed about
20 percents of teachers in our training courses.
Challenges of in-service teacher training in the
COVID -19 pandemic
The challenges caused by the COVID-19
pandemic particularly the unprecedented andJournal of Southeast Asian Education (Vol. 1 | Special Issue): 48 – 52 (2022)

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Innovations in In-Service Teacher Training during the COVID -19 Pandemic at SEAMEO RETRAC in Vietnam

forced shift from the face to face to the online
teaching of the in-service teacher training
programs during the pandemic are veryclear. Findings from a survey on the teachers
taking part in the training in 2020 and 2021
at SEAMEO RETRAC and observations on theimplementation of on-line training during theseyears indicated quite a lot of challenges from thenew pedagogy and the training mode in these
two years. The first challege is that the teachers’
readiness including their skills in using ICT forteaching and learning is still very limited. Many
teachers were not trained to use digital devices
and digital technology for teaching and learning.
Moreover, the frequent crashes of the LMS
platform and poor internet connection at someprovinces negatively affected their learning
experience. The training methods and training
activities were not rich due to the constraints of
online mode and this led to the boring online
classrooms. Trainers complained that they could
not manage their class well and did not reallyknow if the learners were following the online
class sessions. Some localities had to delay thetraining in complying with COVID-19 pandemic
prevention measures. In addition, professional
development was not really of the top interestof teachers due to the many other priorities
including safety, health and food. It was almost
impossible for teachers who are COVID-19
infected or who are living in the quarantine
areas to take part in the training despite the factthat it was offered online.
Innovations in in-service teacher training
during the crisis
During the COVID-19 pandemic, SEAMEORETRAC used mainly the Zoom platform and50

Moddle on our learning management system(LMS) for in-service teacher training forteachers from many provinces in the South ofVietnam. We conducted the training directly
on Zoom platform and we used this platform
to give lectures, to have the learners do
different classroom activities in group as wellas individually with the support of Zoom, LMS
and other useful applications such as Padlet,
Quizzes, Kahoot, etc. Both synchronous andasynchronus on-line teaching approaches wereused for in-service teacher training.
Though face to face teaching can easily apply
physical intereaction in the classroom, on-line
teaching at SEAMEO RETRAC could also help
teachers learn with high motivation, using good
digital techniques for classroom participationand classroom management, even classroom
assessment. To achieve this, the use of different
pedagogy, including on-line teaching techniques
was employed. Giving lectures was not the main
method of delivering the lessons, but manyother methods of teaching were integrated in
the class meeting sessions and in the self-study
time as well.
Quite a lot of classroom activities could
be done on Zoom platform during our classmeeting sessions. We could help the learners
learn new knowledge, practice using the newknowledge and apply the knowledge throughmicro-teaching on the zoom platform.
In order to prepare in-service teachers fortheir success in the teacher training programs,orientation workshops and tutoring activities
are very crutial. A group of tutors and technicalsupporters had been established and they could
asisst the learners at any time during the training
time.

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Ho Thanh My Phuong

In addtion to the formal training courses,
a series of webinars, virtual symposiums, online ICT training workshops were offered forthe in-service teachers to help them develop
their profession in different ways during the
pandemic.
Moreover, to achieve success in in-service
teacher training, self-study sofwares havebeen created and the learners could learn andassess their progress at all time and at theirown pace during their available time. Formative
assessment of online learning has proved to
be a key to success in these in-service teacher
training programs.
Investment in the teaching and learningfacilities especially the digital devices andprofessional development for trainers andacademic managers regarding the updateof digital teaching methods and assessment
tools were considered to be among innovative
solutions for many challenges facing to the inservice teacher training during the crisis.
Lessons learned from the application of
innovative platforms for teacher training in
the COVID-19 Pandemic
Among the important lessons learned fromin-service teacher training during the COVID-19
pandemic at SEAMEO RETRAC is the preparation
for in-service teachers (learners) of the readinessto take the training with new training modality.
Though digital technology had been used bysome teachers at schools before the pandemic,
many in-service teachers were not ready forthe online training which required quite a lot ofdigital skills. Many teachers who were working
in provinces had not had opportunity to use as

much technology in the classroom before thepandemic. Therefore, to ensure the effectivenessof the on-line teacher training, prior orientation
workshops, ICT training workshops and technicalsupports were very necessary.
Another lesson which can be counted is theappropriate teaching methods which can createhigh motivation and active participations of thelearners. Training activites have to be various
and attractive to the learners since on-line
learning can easily demotivate the learners dueto the lack of interactions, physical activitis andnatural learning environment. Both synchronousand asynchronous should be used in the training
since each approach has its own benefits on thein-serivce teachers. Providing sufficient training
lessons in different forms and a variety of training
materials in the LMS platform has proved to bevery effective and useful for the learners.
Investment in the training facility especiallythe devices and conditions for online, webbased training and internet connection for bothtraining institutions and the learners is very
necessary to ensure the effectiveness and succesof the training programs. Innitiatives on the useof digital technology and innovative platforms
should be disserminated and widely applied in
the training.
Though learners can learn at their own timeand pace in the asynchronous sessions throughthe designed LMS, in-service teacher training
programs should be scheduled in the months
when learners can pay their high attention to thetraining. During the two years of the COVID-19
pandemic, there was time when safety, health,and food could be of the leanrers’ top priority.
Therefore, in-service teacher training programs

Journal of Southeast Asian Education (Vol. 1 | Special Issue): 48 – 52 (2022)

51

Innovations in In-Service Teacher Training during the COVID -19 Pandemic at SEAMEO RETRAC in Vietnam

had to be delayed until the pandemic becameless severe.

of

COVID-19,

Asia-Pacific

Journalof

Teacher Education, 48:3, 233-236, DOI:
10.1080/1359866X.2020.1752051

Policy recommendation

Cutri, R.M., Mena, J. & Whiting, E.F.(2020). Faculty

Through my work experience and my close
study on in-service teacher training during the
COVID-19 pandemic, beside the lessons learned
described above, the policy recommendation
to delop more effective teacher training would
be the continuous use of digital technology forin-service teacher training programs. Innovativeeducational platforms and digital devices /applications being used for online training in
the COVID-19 pandemic need to be further
developed and used in the post COVID-19
pandemic in the hybrid modality. In-service
teachers should be given more opportunities touse digital technology in their own teaching andespecially in their profesional development evenwhen they can go back to face to face training
after the pandemic. To support this is certainly
to help enhance life long learning spirits among
the in-service teachers in the post COVID -19
pandemic and in the future.

readinessforonlinetransitioning to online teaching during the
COVID-19 pandemic, European Journal of
Teacher Education, 43:4, 523-541, DOI:
10.1080/02619768.2020.1815702
Flores, M. A., and Gago, M. (2020). Teacher
Education in Times of COVID-19 Pandemic
in Portugal: National, Institutional andPedagogical Responses. Journal of Education
for Teaching. doi:10.1080/02607476.2020.1
799709.
Flores,M., & Swennen, A. (2020). The COVID-19
pandemic and its effects on teacher
education,

European

Journalof

Teacher Education, 43:4, 453-456, DOI:
10.1080/02619768.2020.1824253.
Scull, J. Phillips, M., Sharma, U. & Garnier, K. (2020).
Innovations in teacher education at thetime of COVID19: an Australian perspective.
Journal of Education for Teaching, 46:4, 497-

Allen, J. Rowan, L. , & Singh, P. (2020) Teaching52

teaching:

506, DOI: 10.1080/02607476.2020.1802701

Referencesandcrisisteacher

education

in

the

time

Journal of Southeast Asian Education (Vol. 1 | Special Issue): 48 – 52 (2022)

Journal of Southeast Asian Education (Vol. 1 | Special Issue): 53 – 62 (2022)

Teacher Education Past and Present:
Addressing Current Challenges for a Better Futurewww.seameo.org

SEAMOLEC Journey on Providing Professional Development for Teachers
in ICT Integration into Teaching and Learning
Cahya Kusuma Ratih1* and Dona Octanary2
Ad Interim Deputy Director for Program, SEAMEO SEAMOLEC, Jakarta, Indonesia
Research and Development Staff, SEAMEO SEAMOLEC, Jakarta, Indonesia

1
2*Corresponding Author
Cahya Kusuma Ratih
E-mail: cahya@seamolec.org
Co-Author(s):Author 2: Dona OctanaryE-mail:donaoctanary@seamolec.org

ABSTRACTIn 2022, SEAMEO SEAMOLEC proudly acknowledged its 25 years of providing open
and distance learning (ODL) services to Southeast Asian countries. Today, thefield of ODL is gaining great popularity all over the world. Especially the last two
years, 2020-2021, has been a tough time for everyone as the Covid 19 pandemic
force the government to close the schools and push global transformation on
implementation of distance learning in formal education. Major national efforts to
use technology to support distance and online learning are evolving rapidly. Under
these circumstances, the SEAMEO Regional Open Learning Center (SEAMOLEC)
is looking for the ability to provide alternative solutions to help partners addressthese challenges. The experience of SEAMOLEC in delivering their teacher
training program in the online learning mode since 2017, has been the a valuable
experiences to assist teachers in this difficult time. However, it is a remarkable yearthat SEAMOLEC aims to improve the quality of ODL through national and regional
programs.

Keywords: open and distance learning, Southeast Asian countries, support teachers and educators, variety
of programs, ICT skills

Introduction
SEAMEO Regional Open Learning Centre(SEAMOLEC) is one of the 26 Centres under
the auspices of Southeast Asian Ministers of
Education Organization (SEAMEO) focusing in
the field of Open and Distance Learning (ODL).
Owing to various programs that become its coretasks, like; trainings, consultancies, research anddevelopment, and information dissemination,
SEAMOLEC is assisting the SEAMEO Member
Countries to find alternative solution to enhance
the quality of its people through Open andDistance Learning (ODL).

Published by SEAMEO Organization, ISSN 1513-4601 | Editorial Office: SEAMEO Secretariat, 920 Sukhumvit Road, Bangkok, Thailand.
Tel: (+662) 3910144 | Fax: (+662) 3812587 | E-mail: secretariat@seameo.org This article is under CC BY-SA License.

SEAMOLEC Journey on Providing Professional Development for Teachers in ICT Integration into Teaching and Learning

Figure 1. SEAMEO SEAMOLEC Core Tasks
Online Learning Platforms
In order to support teachers professional
development, especially to equip them withrequired competencies and skills to deliver
their learning materials by utilizing distancelearning supported by technology. Online
learning platforms will be an imitation of thereal classroom, where interactions between
teachers and students as well as among
students happened virtually. SEAMOLEC isproviding several online platforms that havedifferent characteristics based on the teachersand students experiences. In this platform,
four platforms are being introduced: SIAJAR
LMS, SEAMOLEC MOOC, and Moodle-based
E-learning. Additionally, there are two SEAMOLEC
content repositories also being shared here.
1) SIAJAR LMSSIAJAR LMS is the SEAMOLEC owned Learning
Management System (LMS), that was developed
to integrate the advantages of Social Learning

54

Network (SLN) with the Learning Management
System approach. This system was developed
due to the needs of Indonesian education system
regarding the online learning platform in Bahasa
Indonesia. Instead of utilizing course-based
structures, SIAJAR LMS is utilizing class-based
structures that is commonly use in Edmodo or
Google Classrooms.
Systemically SIAJAR is connected andintegrated with Learning Resources so thatteachers can manage learning safely and quickly.
SIAJAR is designed to provide easy display as
well as control in the implementation of digitalclasses. As a Learning Management System(LMS), SIAJAR provides complete learningfrom designing, implementing learning, toassessment.
Currently this platform is being usednationally for online learning in Indonesia nonformal education institutions. This platform isalso as an official learning management system
for the distance learning programs conducted byIndonesian Schools Abroad (Sekolah Indonesia

Journal of Southeast Asian Education (Vol. 1 | Special Issue): 53 – 62 (2022)

Cahya Kusuma Ratih and Dona OctanaryFigure 2. SIAJAR LMS
Luar Negeri/SILN). In 2017-2019, West Javadistance learning programs for senior andvocational high schools under the coordinationof West Java Education Offices is also utilizing
this platform. However in general, SEAMOLEC
is open this platform for public, that can beaccessed on https://lms.seamolec.org/siajarlms.php.
2) SEAMOLEC MOOC and OER Repository

means anyone can participate in online
courses which are free. Scalability means
MOOC is designed to accommodate students/
participants in unlimited amounts. SEAMOLEC
as the SEAMEO Centre for Open and Distance
Learning (ODL) in Southeast Asia region
continued its expertise to initiate and develop
innovation program on the ICT utilization
forteaching and learning through Flexible
Learning & Innovative Programs (FLIP).

Massive Open Online Courses (MOOC)
is provided through platforms featuringfunctionalities and structure similar to a
Learning Management System (LMS). Thus,
the courses are broken down into modules,
containing various types of content, such as;video lectures, text documents, and quizzes.
MOOC has three concerns that are Open
Access, Scalability and Quality. Open Access

FLIP is the term used for SEAMOLEC’s
MOOC (Massive Open Online Course) which
was launched on 28April 2016. In early 2017
SEAMOLEC decided to change the term FLIP
into SEAMOLEC MOOC. With technology rapidly
evolving, policy-makers and higher education
institutions need better assess ways in which
MOOCs and OER could be effectively leveraged
to improve access, enhance quality and

Journal of Southeast Asian Education (Vol. 1 | Special Issue): 53 – 62 (2022)

55

SEAMOLEC Journey on Providing Professional Development for Teachers in ICT Integration into Teaching and Learningpotentially lower the cost of higher education.
There are two characteristics of the online
course provided by SEAMOLEC MOOC; (1)MOOC (online courses with accompaniment),and (2) OER (Open Educational Resources), theonline courses without accompaniment (as therepository). SEAMOLEC MOOC has become
the platform used by SEAMOLEC to provide
various course materials for its online training.
All online learning activities are conducted in thisplatform, such as course overview, discussion
forums, assignments, assessments, etc.

delivered through SEAMOLEC’s Moodle-based
open source LMS. It can be accessed throughelearning.seamolec.org which is used for various
levels and institutions, especially for Higher
Education Institutions. Beside that, SEAMOLEC
is also preparing a dedicated eLearning for
Common ASEAN Tourism Curriculum (CATC)-based online learning courses which is used forthe dissemination and implementation of the
CATC to prepare qualified tourism professionals.
Online Trainings for Teachers3) Moodle-based eLearning

Several typical learning constraints include
distance, isolated domicile, time consuming

Courses that require intensive assistancefrom the instructors are recommended to betransportation, mismatch between school
hour and working hour. These conditions have

SEAMOLEC MOOC
(http://mooc.seamolec.org/)OER Repository(https://sumberbelajar.seamolec.org/)

Figure 3. SEAMOLEC MOOC and OER

General Instructors-lead Courses on(https://elearning.seamolec.org/)

CATC-based online courses on(https://catc.elearning.seamolec.org/)

Figure 4. Moodle-based eLearning

56

Journal of Southeast Asian Education (Vol. 1 | Special Issue): 53 – 62 (2022)

Cahya Kusuma Ratih and Dona Octanary

motivated people to get access to education
without going to campus, school building,training centers, or other educational centers.
Many people with the constraints cannot go toregular course or training.
However, they have the opportunity to haveeducation through open and distance learning(ODL) mode. Through this mode people learn
by themselves actively with minimal assistancefrom other people. They learn from printed selfinstructional materials and ICT-based, such as
digital book, web-based, audio and video-based,
and many other teaching and learning resources.
ODL delivery system can be described as fallingsomewhere along two continua. One continuum
has as pole all students and their tutor at thesame place, and as the other pole all students
and their tutor in different places. The second
continuum has as one pole all students and theirtutor interacting in real time, that is, at the same
point in time and as the other pole all students
and their tutor interacting at different times.

SEAMOLEC with 25 years of experiences indeveloping of ODL since 1997 in Southeast Asianis starting to conduct the online training in theregion with the platform of SEAMOLEC MOOC
(Massive Open Online Course). In national
program (Indonesia), the online training has
conducted for several batches and training
programs for more than 10.000 teachers as
participants.
There are various SEAMOLEC training
programs since 2017-2021 and in general it
could be grouped into six: 1) Development ofvideo-based learning media, 2) 2D Visualisation,3) 3D learning media, 4) Interactive learning
media, 5) Management of Digital/Virtual Class,6) ICT Specialised courses as shown in Figure 5
below. Within 5 years implementations, there
are several milestones on the implementationof online trainings for teachers. At the beginningwhen the course was firstly open, 17 courses
were delivered in 2017 and successfully attract
more than 15,000 teachers. However due to

Figure 5. SEAMOLEC Online Courses 2017-2021
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57

SEAMOLEC Journey on Providing Professional Development for Teachers in ICT Integration into Teaching and Learning

the changes of the internal policy regarding theresources, the numbers of courses is reducedin the following year. Due to the pandemic
situation, in 2021, the teachers enthusiasm tojoin online learning was getting higher again.
Almost 10,000 teachers were participated in 8
courses. Most participants (more than 5,000
participants) were joining an online course toadapt new normal situation that aims to equip
teachers with suitable competencies in planning
the online class, developing simple media in theform of e-modules and video screencast, doing
engaging interaction with students, as wellas presenting those learning media in certain
online learning platform.
SEAMOLEC online training is conducted byutilizing various integrated platforms. First theparticipants are required to register themselveson the SEAMOLEC E-Training registration system.
By registering, every participant will get unique

number as their ID that could be used frequently
in this system. After that, the participants will
get access to the SEAMOLEC MOOC platform,
where they can learn individually based on
their self-pace. Synchronous meetings arealso scheduled several times in order to getfurther assistance from the instructors. Since
most of the SEAMOLEC trainings are required
the submissions of trainings products such as:learning media or teaching plan in order tobe eligible to get completion certificate, theinstructors also available for any questions or
feedbacks during training.
Models on Online Teachers Training(2021-2022)
Digital Comic for Engaging Online Learning
The Covid-19 pandemic has forced schools
from 190 countries around the world to close

Figure 6. Milestones of SEAMOLEC Online Trainings

58

Journal of Southeast Asian Education (Vol. 1 | Special Issue): 53 – 62 (2022)

Cahya Kusuma Ratih and Dona Octanaryschools and stop all activities in schools (World
Bank, 2020). As a result, more than 1.7 billion
students are forced to study from home. In avery short time, educators must find a way toensure students continue to learn. The majorityof educators choose solutions to migrate face-toface learning to online modes. Online learning,which actually requires careful preparation, hasturned into Emergency Remote Teaching (ERT)with all its limitations. Hodges, et al. (2020)
explain that ERT is a temporary migration fromface-to-face learning activities to alternativemodes due to crisis conditions. This alternativemode is distance learning, which later returns toface-to-face format after a crisis or emergency
subsides. The role of the teacher in managing
learning is the key to ensuring students learn
as they should. In this case, it can be seen
the urgency to equip teachers not only withtechnological knowledge to operate certain

tools. But what is more urgent is the need forteacher pedagogical knowledge in exploring
the potential of technological tools that are not
only used as learning resources but can also be
used to actively involve students in collaborative
activities with their peers. In addition, teachers
also need to be equipped with knowledge toorchestrate technological tools in a learning
design. Well-designed online learning will
have an impact on increasing student activity,
creativity, interest and motivation, which inturn will also result in better student learning
outcomes.
SEAMOLEC

incollaboration

with

the

Universitas Pendidikan Indonesia (UPI) andInstitut Teknologi Bandung (ITB) planningwas conducting Online Training on Teacher
Competency Development in Designing Student
Learning Engagement in Special Conditions.
Resource persons involved in the development

Figure 7. Platform on Online Trainings
Journal of Southeast Asian Education (Vol. 1 | Special Issue): 53 – 62 (2022)

59

SEAMOLEC Journey on Providing Professional Development for Teachers in ICT Integration into Teaching and Learningof this model are Dr. Finita Dewi, S.S., M.A.
and Tia Citra Bayuni, M.Pd from Universitas
Pendidikan Indonesia, Dr. Gumawang Jati, M.A. –Institut Teknologi Bandung. During the planning,the development of this teachers training refers
to several aspects as described below:

process and the product has been given
at the beginning of the training so thatparticipants know which aspects must be
considered and will be used as assessment
material. In addition, participants will
receive feedback on an ongoing basis.

• Bite-size learning
The material will be designed in such a waythat takes into account the participants’cognitive load. The instructional videos
are delivered in the form of a micro video
lecture with a duration of not more than 5
minutes. Activities are designed in stages
from simple to more complex levels.

This online training is expected to be a solution
in preparing teachers to present distancelearning in accordance with the characteristics ofstudents who are Alpha generation who are very
familiar with the use of technology and gadgets.
The internet is the most urgent need for thealpha generation, so many of the students feelbored if they take part in learning which is only in• Engaging
Participants do not become passive
learners who only receive information
conveyed by the instructor, but participants
will be actively involved both in exploringsources of information through online
research, discussing with lecturers andcolleagues in small groups, and exploring
relevant technological tools for learning.
• Collaborative
The training materials will facilitate
collaboration in small groups and maximize
interaction between participants incompleting projects.
• Flexible
In completing this training project,participants will have the freedom tochoose the format or output model thatwill be produced by them, referring to
the signs and corridors that have been
provided by the instructor.
• Assessment for Learning

the form of assignments written by the teacher
via short messages, the involvement of students
is low. The development of online training is
expected to increase the ability of teachers tocreate a learning process that is suitable andeasily accepted by the alpha generation so that
it will have a significant impact on the activenessof students who experience learning in times of
special conditions like today.

In the process of working on a training
project, an assessment rubric for both the60

Gamification Course
Since the COVID-19 pandemic hit all over
the world, almost all activities have migrated
to online, including learning. However, many
obstacles were encountered including thelearning approach. It takes a variety of learning
approaches, one of which is gamification. This
training aims to introduce the gamification
method to junior high/high school teachers
as an innovative learning method that canincrease student motivation and involvement inlearning activities both online and offline. Aftercompleting this training, training participants are
expected to be able to: a) explain gamification

Journal of Southeast Asian Education (Vol. 1 | Special Issue): 53 – 62 (2022)

Cahya Kusuma Ratih and Dona Octanary

Avatars of the Digital Comic Participants

Digital Comic created by participants from Thailand

Figure 8. Digital Comic for Engaging Online Learning Course

Interface of Gamification Course

Synchronous Discussion

Figure 9. Gamification course for science teachers
and its role in learning management and b)
design gamification classes according to thesubjects taught. The duration of the trainingthat has been carried out is 80 hours. Startingon September 1, 2021 and ending on October
20, 2021.
The training strategy used is as follows:This training utilizes the gamification learning
method with scenarios inspired by the game
“Monopoly Tycoon”. Therefore, in this training,
the trainees are not only invited to learn theconcept of gamification and its implementationin learning, but also to play in “Monopoly
Tycoon”. The trainees will be invited to hunt
and invest Monopoly Tycoon dollars ($) in
accordance with the Book of Rules that has been
prepared by the training instructor. At the endof the training, the trainees will be invited toreflect on the gamification strategy and also todesign a Book of Rules by the trainees that will
be used in learning. This training is limited to 50
participants and participants who can complete
as many as 14 participants.
Conclusions
This paper is shared the SEAMOLEC efforts to
support the distance learning implementation inSoutheast Asia. Various online learning platforms
with different purposes are provided for publicthat are could be used to familiarize teacherswith the management of virtual learning.
Annually, since 2017 until now, SEAMOLEC isalso delivering various courses on the utilizationof ICT tools. Thousands teachers are annually

Journal of Southeast Asian Education (Vol. 1 | Special Issue): 53 – 62 (2022)

61

SEAMOLEC Journey on Providing Professional Development for Teachers in ICT Integration into Teaching and Learning

participated and then their training products
submission is the evidence of those teachers
digital skills. In 2021, SEAMOLEC is also focusing
on the engaging online learning by providing
digital comics and gamification courses. Lesson
learn from last year development will be partof further improvement in this SEAMOLEC
teacher’s trainings programs.

Southeast Asian Ministers of Education Organization
Regional Open Learning Centre. The Working
Papers Governing Board Members 22nd .
Available: https://gbm.seamolec.org/2019/[2022,March 11].
Southeast Asian Ministers of Education Organization
Regional Open Learning Centre. The Working
Papers Governing Board Members 23rd .
Available: https://gbm.seamolec.org/2020/

References

62[2022,March 11].

Southeast Asian Ministers of Education Organization

Southeast Asian Ministers of Education Organization

Regional Open Learning Centre. The Annual

Regional Open Learning Centre. The Working

Report 2021. Available: https://seamolec.

Papers Governing Board Members 24th .

org/files/report/89213.pdf [2022, March

Available: https://gbm.seamolec.org/2021/

11].

[2022,March 11].

Journal of Southeast Asian Education (Vol. 1 | Special Issue): 53 – 62 (2022)

Journal of Southeast Asian Education (Vol. 1 | Special Issue): 63 – 69 (2022)

Teacher Education Past and Present:
Addressing Current Challenges for a Better Futurewww.seameo.org

Ensuring Continuity of Learning for Learners with Disabilities
Hanani binti Harun Rasit1*, Mizanina binti Mohamad Madon2, Ahmad Heikhal bin Amir Hamzah3
and Monishah binti Mohd Shah4
SEAMEO Regional Centre for Educational Needs (SEN), Melaka, Malaysia

1,2,3,4*Corresponding Author
Dr Hanani binti Harun Rasit
E-mail:hanani@seameosen.edu.my
Co-Author(s):Author 2: Ms. Mizanina binti­Mohamad Madon
E-mail:mizanina@seameosen.edu.my

ABSTRACTThe devastating impact of COVID-19 has affected the education sector as schools
are no longer operating as usual. Most of the countries have experienced numerous
school closures and reopening since 2020. However, as the outbreak is undercontrol, some countries have implemented hybrid learning and face-to-face classes
that still need to adhere to strict health protocol, social distancing and wearing
masks. During the back-to-school phase, the education system needs to accelerate

Author 3: Mr. Ahmad Heikhal bin
Amir Hamzah
E-mail:heikhal.hamzah@seameosen.edu.mylearning recovery in order to mitigate the learning loss. If it is not addressed, it will

Author 4: Ms. Monishah binti
Mohd Shah
E-mail:monishah@seameosen.edu.mycontinuity of learning should be focusing on bringing all children back to schools,

undoubtedly lead to learning poverty. As recommended by World Bank, UNESCO,
and UNICEF in a report on Mission: Recovering Education 2021, efforts to ensure therecovering learning losses, as well as preparing and supporting teachers. Therefore,
this paper aims to describe SEAMEO SEN’s efforts to equip in-service and pre-service
teachers with adequate teaching skills to ensure the continuity of learning forlearners with disabilities (LWD).

Keywords: continuity of learning, Disability-Inclusive Teaching in Emergency (DTeEm), learners with disabilities, learning loss, learning recovery

Introduction
COVID-19 has caused unprecedented
disruptions to the education sector as schools
worldwide are closed. Since the pandemic
started in 2020, schools in some countries
have been closed for two consecutive years tocurb the coronavirus disease outbreak among
learners. In the Southeast Asia region, most of

the countries had to undergo school closures a
few times. For instance, countries like Malaysia,
Singapore and Lao PDR experienced school
closures once in 2020 and 2021, whereas
schools in Thailand faced school closures morethan one time during the two years of thepandemic.

Published by SEAMEO Organization, ISSN 1513-4601 | Editorial Office: SEAMEO Secretariat, 920 Sukhumvit Road, Bangkok, Thailand.
Tel: (+662) 3910144 | Fax: (+662) 3812587 | E-mail: secretariat@seameo.org This article is under CC BY-SA License.

Ensuring Continuity of Learning for Learners with Disabilities

Table 1. School Closures in Southeast AsiaYear

1-2 times school
closures

3-4 times school
closures2020

Malaysia-

ThailandSingapore
Lao PDR
Indonesia
Vietnam2021

Malaysia

ThailandLao PDR
Vietnam

Impact of School Closures
Two years into the COVID-19 pandemic, theeducation system has changed dramatically andhas affected learners’ level of performance andparticipation due to the limited face-to-faceinteraction with the teachers during the school
closures. Unfortunately, learners with disabilities
face more significant challenges following
the change to distance/online learning. The
COVID-19 pandemic exposed the shortcomings,
fragilities, risks and inequalities in the educationof learners with disabilities within and acrosscountries (UNESCO, 2021). It clearly showsthat the impacts of school closures on learners
with disabilities are higher than those without
disabilities. UNESCO Asia and Pacific Regional
Bureau for Education (2021) also found that the
prolonged school closures have aggravated thelearning crisis, raised pre-existing inequalities,
and inhibited equitable and inclusive educationachievement in achieving the Sustainable
Development Goal (SDG) 4.
Learners with disabilities are likely to face
more significant barriers in accessing distancelearning and face an increased risk of droppingout of education during disruptions to learning

64(United Nations, 2020). The absence ofappropriate assistive technology, inadequately
trained teachers, limited access to the internet,
and inaccessible learning materials and support
system has increased their exclusion fromeducation.
The prolonged school closures have hindered
their development of social skills, especiallyfor learners who struggle with social andcommunication problems like learners with
autism and learning disabilities. The limited social
contact also has affected them psychologically,as learners with disabilities are usually sustained
and stimulated by interaction with peers (United
Nations, 2020). Consequently, huge numbers oflearners with disabilities are not achieving the
expected level of learning and performance.
School Reopening Mitigation Efforts
As the spread of COVID-19 has flattened, most
schools are gradually reopened and are backto a physical class, conforming to strict healthprotocol. The back-to-school transition takes
an all-out effort to ensure that learners withdisabilities are prepared to go back to school.
Due to the prolonged school closures impacts,
the education system needs to acceleratelearning recovery to mitigate the learning loss.
A prompt action by all parties, namely
teachers, administrators, and parents, is required
to address the learning loss to avoid learning
poverty among learners with disabilities. Thus,
the need to have a renewed preparation to
respond to crises while attending to learners
with disabilities’ academic needs is highly
emphasized. A report on Mission: Recovering
Education 2021 by World Bank, UNESCO, andJournal of Southeast Asian Education (Vol. 1 | Special Issue): 63 – 69 (2022)

Hanani binti Harun Rasit, Mizanina binti Mohamad Madon, Ahmad Heikhal bin Amir Hamzah and Monishah binti Mohd Shah

UNICEF, recommends three essential strategies
that need to be focused on during the postpandemic phase, which are, i.) bringing all
children back to schools, ii.) recovering learning
losses, and iii.) preparing and supporting
teachers during the transition of the back-toschool phase.
Remediation effort by educators is highly
needed to support the learners in catching up
on lost learning through a variety of means,including additional teaching time, focused
content, and specific pedagogy (UNESCO,2021). Therefore, educators of learners withdisabilities must be equipped with training andsupport to provide accessible and individualized
learning plans that include blended approaches
combining lower tech or no tech solutions,captioning and sign-language options, andincluding integrating remedial classes (UNESCO,2020).

Policy Responses mentioned there are three(3) response phases, i.) The Relief Phase, ii.)
The Recovery Phase and iii.) The Resilience
Phase. Firstly, the Relief Phase outlines theimmediate actions needed to ensure inclusive
response while learners are away from theirclassroom environments. Then, the Recovery
Phase highlights the medium-term strategysteps that must be taken to ensure that learners
with disabilities are not left behind whenschools begin to reopen. Lastly, the Resilience
Phase includes long-term actions that shouldbe implemented to increasingly make progress
to a more inclusive, equitable environment to
mitigate the learning loss (World Bank 2020).
These phases are necessary to bring the learners
with disabilities to achieve the expected level oflearning.

As the COVID-19 pandemic has increased
the risk of further marginalization for vulnerable
groups, learners with disabilities are more
likely to experience exclusion from educationin comparison to learners without disabilities.
Holistic planning is a much-needed effort inensuring the learners are still receiving a quality
education despite unprecedented times. The planshould comprise the transition from a face-to-faceclass to an online class, then school reopening
after prolonged school closures and lastly, therecovery phase during the back-to-school.

In response to the three phases, SEAMEO
SEN, as collaborated with UNESCO Bangkok
and SEAMEO Secretariat, has developed
an online learning module titled DisabilityInclusive Teaching in Emergency (DTeEm)
Course for teachers entitled Responding to
Educational Needs of Learners with Disabilities
in Emergencies. This module was funded by
the Global Partnership for Education (GPE) anddesigned to escalate teachers’ capacity in thefour (4) following areas; Stress Management
and Psychosocial Support, Utilization ofDifferent Assistive Technologies, Developing
Emergency Response Plans, and Continuityof Learning. This online learning module has
been adopted and piloted in four countries in
Asia: Bhutan, Cambodia, Lao PDR, and TimorLeste and is available in six languages, English,

A report by World Bank (2020) titled
COVID-19 Pandemic: Shocks to Education andLaotian, Indonesian, Tetum, Cambodian, andDzongkha.

Continuity of Learning for Learners with
Disabilities

Journal of Southeast Asian Education (Vol. 1 | Special Issue): 63 – 69 (2022)

65

Ensuring Continuity of Learning for Learners with Disabilities

Among the four areas in this online learning
module, one module highlights the continuityof learning for learners with disabilities. This
module consists of 4 chapters; Chapter 1:
Learning Continuity for Learners with Disabilities,
Chapter 2: Transitioning from Face-to-Face
Instruction to Remote Instruction, Chapter 3:
Transitioning from Home-Based Instruction
to School-Based Instruction, and Chapter 4:
Ready to Teach and Learn. This 4-chaptersmodule covers every aspect of ensuring the
educational services are continuously delivered
while providing an inclusive learning space forlearners with disabilities in different modalities.
Furthermore, this module also offers guidancefor educators in bringing back the learners toschool with considerations of their well-being,safety, and readiness to attend the face-toface learning, also the strategies to access thelearning gap and learning loss.
Aside from that, this online learning module
also provided three other areas: Module 1 on
Stress Management and Psychosocial Support,
consisting of 4 chapters, will enlighten educators
on effective interventions on stress management
and strategies to provide psychosocial support
to educators and learners with disabilities. From
this module, educators are able to tap others’
potentials to assist families at home, school, andcommunity. This module will also elaborate on
the benefits of these interventions for the wellbeing of learners with disabilities.
Next, Module 2, consisting of 3 chapters, isabout Utilizing Different Assistive Technologies.
In this module, educators will learn about
assistive technology devices’ different functions
and benefits to learners with disabilities.
Educators will also be able to determine the66

appropriate assistive technologies for thelearners and ways to modify and adapt those
tools to facilitate the learning process of learners
with disabilities.
Lastly, Module 3 on Developing an Emergency
Response Plan, which consists of 3 chapters,
will equip educators with knowledge and skills
related to disaster risk reduction at school. This
module will explain ways to mitigate the impacts
on learners with disabilities following inclusive
principles in emergency planning and response.
This module also shares the comprehensive
emergency response, emergency standard
operating procedures (SOP), and safety rulesthat will help accommodate learners withdisabilities.
The unprecedented events like the COVID-19
pandemic have caused learners with disabilities
to experience difficulties to go through apractical learning session and regress them fromachieving the expected level of achievement.
Thus, this module will equip the educators oflearners with disabilities with adequate skills
in planning, preparing and offering an effective
educational service during the unprecedented
events and assuring learners are back on track
during the post-events. This effort is moving
towards achieving the primary aim of providing
learners with disabilities with the required
educational needs.
Overall, this online learning module isexpected to guide special education educators
to deliver their educational services despite
unprecedented situations like pandemics andact as an accessible source of information indeveloping capacities of educators to support
learners with disabilities.

Journal of Southeast Asian Education (Vol. 1 | Special Issue): 63 – 69 (2022)

Hanani binti Harun Rasit, Mizanina binti Mohamad Madon, Ahmad Heikhal bin Amir Hamzah and Monishah binti Mohd ShahCapacity Building for Special Education
Teachers
As a regional centre for special educational
needs, SEAMEO SEN is mandated to ensurespecial education teachers in the Southeast
Asia region are equipped with skills andknowledge that will help them deliver highquality educational services to learners withdisabilities. Currently, SEAMEO SEN has started
to promote the DTeEm Course to the preservice and in-service teachers in SEAMEO
member countries to prepare and support
teachers, to ensure the continuity of learningfor learners with disabilities in responding to
the pandemic.
Additionally, SEAMEO SEN also organized an
online training titled Post Pandemic Continuity of
Learning for Learners with Disabilities, in which
the best practices in delivering educational
services during and after the pandemic wereshared. This training aligns with one of the topics
discussed in the online learning course, which is
Module 4: Continuity of Learning. This training
aimed to develop special education teachers’
capacity in ensuring learners with disabilities areable to continue their learning process during
the school closures and after the reopening of
the schools. Furthermore, this training focusedon creating relevant learning materials inaccessible formats for the teachers of learners
with disabilities at the primary level. As a result,teachers will be equipped with knowledge on
ways to elevate the quality of teaching during
the school closures and facilitate the transitionof returning to school.
In 2022, SEAMEO SEN has levelled up its
effort in promoting best practices for special

education teachers by providing training that
includes various areas and themes that movetowards developing an inclusive environment
for learners with disabilities. These trainings are
specified for special education teachers, but it
is also expected to benefit education personnel,
mainstream teachers, parents, caregivers, andthe community who work with persons withdisabilities. A collaborative effort to apprehend
inclusiveness by each party is necessary forsupporting learners with disabilities to be
independent and achieve success like others.
Viewpoint from Educators
An evaluation survey was conducted to
identify a total of 24 participants’ feedback on
the online module training, DTEeM. At the endof the training, each participant is required torecord a testimonial video to express his/her
feedback on the online learning module. The
participants who are the in-service teachers gave
favorable feedback on DTeEm online course.
Great sharing session. Now I have a better
understanding on how to use assistive
technology that I have to teach my students
and able to utilize resources around me to be
used in my teaching. (Participant 1, Malaysia)
It is an eye opener sharing about the effects
of post pandemic towards students withdisabilities. (Participant 2, Philippines)
Thank you SEAMEO SEN for organizing thiscourse. I hope this online module can betranslated into other languages so that it canbe used to help more students with disabilities
in other countries. (Participant 3, Indonesia)
All in all, participants who are educatorsof Special Educational Needs from SEAMEO

Journal of Southeast Asian Education (Vol. 1 | Special Issue): 63 – 69 (2022)

67Ensuring Continuity of Learning for Learners with Disabilities

member countries expressed that the module
has greatly expanded their understanding andprovided great insight into how it can be used
to achieve the learning outcomes. Moreover,the participants have also viewed the modules
as very informative as it presented creative
approach to teaching learners particularly during
and after the pandemic. In addition to its wellcrafted content, the teachers also expressed thatthey learnt the various techniques and relevant
learning materials which are incorporates in anaccessible format.
A total of 118 pre-service teachers who arestill undergoing teacher-education programmeparticipated in the Post Pandemic Continuity of
Learning for Learners with Disabilities training
online. All participants gave positive feedbackon the training as they have gained new
knowledge on continuity of learning during andpost-pandemic for learners with disabilities. This
training is beneficial for the pre-service teachers
as it will help them prepare their professional
development before integrating teacher
profession. Ensuring that teachers possessed
the skills and competency that lead learners toparticipate accordingly and comprehensively
while learning, are the valuable and fundamental
content provided by speakers of this 2-hourtraining session.
The sharing session is very good. The training
is useful and benefit me greatly as a special
education teacher-to-be. The speakers share a
lot of knowledge that are important and canhelp me in the future. (Participant 1, Malaysia)
I’ve learned new knowledge today on how toteach disabilities students during pandemic.
(Participant 2, Malaysia)

68

I love how the speakers explain. Thank you
for sharing how to prepare students back toschool after the school closures.
(Participant 3, Malaysia)
Generally, the DTEeM module and the online
training helped prepare the in-service andpre-service teachers to address learning loss
by adapting relevant and quality pedagogy.
Furthermore, the training session also served
the educators of learners with disabilities withguidance on incorporating technologies suchas providing accessible learning materials
for learners with disabilities. This effort is toensure the learning session continues despite
unexpected situations.
Conclusions
In a nutshell, going back to school is very
challenging for educators and learners. Hence,educators’ readiness to adapt and prepare
the continuity of learning after a long periodof school closure is essential as they need toassure learners with disabilities can catch up
and continue the learning session.
An adequate and continuous capacity building
for educators is necessary for the transition
from physical learning to distance learning,
school reopening, and learning recovery during
the back-to-school phase. The school closuresdue to the pandemic have shown that educatorsneed to fit in learners’ needs and concur withcurrent circumstances. Hence, it is important torevisit teachers’ capacity building with current
needs aspects like online pedagogies, special
assessments to identify the learning gap, andnecessary remediation to mitigate the learning
loss.

Journal of Southeast Asian Education (Vol. 1 | Special Issue): 63 – 69 (2022)

Hanani binti Harun Rasit, Mizanina binti Mohamad Madon, Ahmad Heikhal bin Amir Hamzah and Monishah binti Mohd Shah

Apart from that, an accessible learningmaterial such as the DTEeM module can also be
used as guidance for educators in ensuring thelearning session continues despite the criticaltimes and offer appropriate approaches onrecovering the learning loss for learners withdisabilities.

Pacific.

Organisation

Available:

http://uis.

unesco.org/sites/default/files/documents/
school_closures_and_regional_policies_to_
mitigate_learning_losses_in_asia_pacific.
pdf
UNICEF East Asia and Pacific Region (2020) Ensuring
an inclusive return to school for children
withReferences[Online]disabilities.

[Online]Available:

https://reliefweb.int/sites/reliefweb.
forEconomic

Co-operation

andDevelopment (OECD). (2020). The Impact of
Covid-19 on Student Equity and Inclusion.
[Online]Available:

https://www.oecd.

org/coronavirus/policy-responses/theimpact-of-covid-19-on-student-equity-and-int/files/resources/Ensuring%20an%20
inclusive%20return%20to%20school%20
for%20children%20with%20disabilities%20-%20UNICEF%20East%20Asia%20and%20
P a c i fi c % 2 0 R e g i o n % 2 0 C O V I D - 1 9 % 2 0
technical%20guidance.pdf

inclusion-supporting-vulnerable-learners-

World Bank Group. (2020). Pivoting to Leveraging

during-school-closures-and-school-re-Lessons from the Covid19 Crisis for Learners

openings-d593b5c8/

with Disabilities. [Online] Available: https://

UNESCO (2021). Policy Brief Understanding the
Impact of Covid19 on the Education of
Persons with Disabilities: Challenges andOpportunitiesofDistance

Education.

[Online] Available: https://unsdg.un.org/
sites/default/files/2020-05/Policy-Brief-A-

documents1.worldbank.org /curated/
en/777641595915675088/pdf/Pivotingto-Inclusion-Leveraging-Lessons-fromthe-COVID-19-Crisis-for-Learners-withDisabilities.pdf
World Bank, UNICEF & UNESCO (2021). Mission:

Disability-Inclusive-Response-to-COVID-19.

Recovering

pdf

Available:

UNESCO Asia and Pacific Regional Bureau for
Education. (2021). School Closures andRegional Policies to Mitigate Learning
Loss due to Covid 19: A Focus on The Asia

Education

2021.

[Online]https://thedocs.worldbank.org/

en/doc/48a431d24d2d23eb1a2fc25a37
a00a2b-0140052021/original/Recoverymission-statement-5-pager-FINAL-4-45pm.
pdf

Journal of Southeast Asian Education (Vol. 1 | Special Issue): 63 – 69 (2022)

69

Journal of Southeast Asian Education (Vol. 1 | Special Issue): 70 – 84 (2022)

Teacher Education Past and Present:
Addressing Current Challenges for a Better Futurewww.seameo.org

Assessing the Curriculum Implementation Effectiveness at General andTechnical High Schools in Cambodia
Songheang Ai1* and Vorn Tim2Southeast Asian Ministers of Education Organization Regional Centre for Technical Education Development (SEAMEOTED), Phnom Penh, Kingdom of Cambodia
1,2*Corresponding Author
Songheang Ai
E-mail:song.heang@yahoo.com
Co-Author(s):Author 2: Vorn Tim
E-mail: timvorn@hotmail.com

ABSTRACT
Recently the curriculum developers and policy makers have expressed alarm
about the implementation effectiveness of technical education curriculum at thesecondary education level in Cambodia. While most agree that the imbalance
between theories and practices deserves attention for some supporting subjects ofeach trade contextualizing the labor market need. Skills mismatches are paid highattention for technical education development. This cross-sectional study design
employs the importance-performance analysis (IPA) approach for 213 participants asyear two students to assess the curriculum implementation effectiveness. The paper
identifies some subjects that work well, some that need immediate actions, andsome that require improvement or correction among five trades, namely electronics,
electricity, animal husbandry, agronomy, and accounting and management. This
assessment of curriculum implementation effectiveness points out the limitationsof curriculum contents and suggests the need for a holistic approach in curriculum
development participated by industry representatives, technical education teachers,
curriculum experts, and policy makers.

Keywords: curriculum, general and technical high schools, teacher, and technical education

Introduction
Curriculum is a central guide to support
teachers and students in teaching and learning
successfully. A curriculum is an instructionalsequence of contents and direction ensuring thatteaching and learning take place productively inschools (Walker, 2003). The curriculum needs
to be authentic in nature, capture theories andpractices, and cultivate knowledge, skills andattitude. Therefore, the curriculum is crucial for
education and training.
Technical and vocational education andtraining (TVET) plays such an integral partin accelerating economic growth that someadvanced countries prioritize it as one of the

Published by SEAMEO Organization, ISSN 1513-4601 | Editorial Office: SEAMEO Secretariat, 920 Sukhumvit Road, Bangkok, Thailand.
Tel: (+662) 3910144 | Fax: (+662) 3812587 | E-mail: secretariat@seameo.org This article is under CC BY-SA License.

Songheang Ai and Vorn Tim

forerunners such as Germany, Japan, South
Korea, UK, etc. Likewise, the Royal Governmentof Cambodia (RGC) also put emphasis on TVET
development by setting out at least one generaland technical high school (GTHS) in each province
for a short-term vision and at least one generaland technical high school (GTHS) in each district
for a long-term vision in order to transition its
economic status to an upper middle-income
country in 2030 and to a high-income country
in 2050. To achieve this ambition, TVET needs
to have quality and responsiveness. To be
responsive, the curriculum needs to embrace
theories and practices capturing work reality.
However, there is a curriculum gap between
theories and practices without industry
engagement in the curriculum development
process for TVET system in Cambodia (ADB,
2016). Many students go to schools without
learning anything because of irrelevant andtraditional curriculum (Panth & Maclean,2020). Training programs are found ineffective,
hindering skills mismatches and skills gaps (ADB,
2020). Thus, limited quality TVET system isresulted from the mismatches between demandand supply of which curriculum is a core bridge(MoEYS, 2019).
The curriculum should be future-oriented
to prepare learners to meet the emerging
needs of technological innovation and the labormarket (Panth & Maclean, 2020). Curriculum
implementation is significant for schoolsthat should be considered. The findings will
provide learners with appropriate and relevant
learning contents to ensure that the learning
environment in the class is productive andconcrete. Vocational subject clusters andgeneral subject clusters can be classified interms of “work well, need immediate action,and need improvement”. Technical educationteachers will be guided functionally to modify
subject clusters to meet the competency levels
and interests of students. The findings will
help policy makers and curriculum developers
to guide their direction and focus. GTHS
management will professionally report aboutteachers’ instructional progress. Finally, GTHS
management will be able to monitor and provide
teachers instructional advice and guidance
following the newly-updated curriculum.
The research objective is to assess thecurriculum
implementation
effectiveness.
Responding to the objective, three researchquestions were raised consisting of (1) Whatsubjects work well for each trade? (2) Whatsubjects need immediate actions for each trade?
And (3) What subjects need improvements foreach trade?
Literature Review
TVET creates jobs and employment for thepeople, alleviating poverty. To achieve this, thecurriculum is one of the bridges that should beassessed radically regarding subject clusters,
time allotment, contents, and objectives. The
subject clusters (technical subject clusters andgeneral subject clusters) reflect the labor market
need and students’ interests and competency
levels. There are a lot of studies highlighting
subject clusters capturing students’ interestsand competency levels that should be raised for
discussion.
The royal government of Bhutan (2019)
developed the TVET curriculum framework by
putting an emphasis on literacy and numeracy

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Assessing the Curriculum Implementation Effectiveness at General and Technical High Schools in Cambodia

subjects such as English language andMathematics. However, Roofe and Ferguson(2018), employing a qualitative content analysis
approach to explore TVET curriculum contents atlower secondary level found the need to assess
the curriculum contents and objectives because
they lacked an alignment with one anotherin Jamaica. In Singapore at the secondary
education level, technical students are required
to study English language, mathematics andcomputer applications as supporting generalsubjects for technical courses (SEAMEOVOCTECH, 2020).
Regarding agriculture trade, Ruiz, Radtke
and Scherr (2021), developing the nutrition
curriculum for high school students andapplying an expert review approach to assess
the learning achievements found a vocational
subject cluster consisting of food supply chain
and food environments, nutrition lessons,cooking lessons including food safety, budgeting,and preparation. In other words, White etal. (2018), using a qualitative approach withan expert review and focus group to developa learn by actively participating curriculumfor youths explored three main subjects,
namely gardening, culinary skills, and family
conversation/interaction.

72

to be added in the accounting and management
curriculum.
Research Methodology
The research methodology is a crucial tool
used to answer research questions to ensurethat the results are empirical and scientific innature. The rigorous systematic approaches are
as follows:
Data Collection
The data was collected from the participants
as technical education students currently
studying year 2 at general and technical highschools (GTHSs) in Cambodia. The paperbased questionnaire, as part of self-reported
appraisals, was filled out by the participants
under a direct instruction by a team ofresearchers. The participants were gathered tosit and listen to researchers’ instruction at one
common hall at schools before filling out thequestionnaire. Because they are high school
students, they were also instructed not to copy
or cheat from each other while completing thequestionnaire.

In Malaysia, the TVET curriculum is developedby schools following the occupational standards.
The entrepreneurship subject is added into thecurriculum to enhance self-employment for
graduates (Unit, 2009). Afolabi (2014), examining
the quality of accounting students in Nigeria inlight of the private and public sector perception

The data was also collected from five GTHSs
namely Community Development Institute;
Kampong Chheuteal Demonstration GTHS;Sant Franscois GTHS; Preah Bat Samdach Preah
Borom Neat Norodom Sihamoni GTHS; andPreah Norodom Sihamoni GTHS, located infive different provinces. The five GTHSs cover
five trades consisting of electronics, electricity,
agronomy, animal husbandry, and accounting

by surveying 350 participants from the private
and public enterprises found that the computer
skills subject and principle of accounting needed

and management. Electricity, electronics, andmanufacturing are the main focus for Cambodia’s
industry-driven economy vision (Thomas,

Journal of Southeast Asian Education (Vol. 1 | Special Issue): 70 – 84 (2022)

Songheang Ai and Vorn Tim

2019). Moreover, modern agriculture has been
applied to increase local food production. The
accounting and management are the supporting
trade for manufacturing. The criteria for GTHSs
selection are (1) delivering any trade service
from year 2; (2) the participants can be assessedby appointment; and (3) GTHSs follow thecurriculum guideline on technical education at
upper secondary level, issued by the Ministry of
Education, Youth, and Sport (MoEYS) for theirinstructions.

Research Method

Participant Selection

To analyze data from the completed
questionnaire from target participants, theimportance performance analysis (IPA) approach

The target group is year 2 students currently
studying at GTHSs. The selection criteria forparticipants are (1) finishing studying years
1 and 2 and ready for year 3; (2) currently
studying at any trade at GTHSs; (3) volunteering
to participate in the study; and (4) beingcommitted to graduate year 3. The participants
are from diverse backgrounds, as describedin the descriptive statistics revealing age, sex,
years of studies, trade, names of schools, andschool province. No incentives were provided
for the participants after filling out thequestionnaire.

The critical research questions can be
answered by employing the quantitative
research method. Particularly, the survey
research using cross-sectional study design wasapplied to assess the participants’ opinions andbelief about the curriculum implementation
effectiveness at one point in time (Creswell,2012).
Data Analysis

was employed using SPSS version 25.0. IPA
has been used to assess the quality-of-service
deliveries or attributes in terms of importanceand performance, particularly in educationor tourism (Deng & Pierskalla, 2018). The IPA
approach scatters attributes into four quadrants
namely “concentrate here” as quadrant I, “keepup the good work” as quadrant II, “low priority” asquadrant III, and “potential overkill” as quadrant
IV, as shown in [Figure 1]. The participants rate
their perceptions on the provided attributes
in terms of importance and satisfaction. The

Figure 1. Importance-Performance Analysis Grid
Journal of Southeast Asian Education (Vol. 1 | Special Issue): 70 – 84 (2022)

73

Assessing the Curriculum Implementation Effectiveness at General and Technical High Schools in Cambodia

attributes might fall into each quadrant referringto the participants’ perceptions. As a result, any
attributes falling into quadrant III (low priority)and quadrant IV (potential overkill) mean thatthose attributes don’t contribute to overallsatisfaction and importance (Deng & Pierskalla,
2018).

measurement tool represents the thing bemeasured. Each trade has different items/
contents with the same Likert type 5-point
scale. For example, for electricity trade, item 1
mentions Math (3 hours a week) with a level ofsatisfaction. They range from not satisfying at all(1); not satisfying (2); neutral (3); satisfying (4);and very satisfying (5) for participant ratings.

Research Instruments
Questionnaire items capture five trades,
namely electronics, electricity, agronomy, animalhusbandry, and accounting and management
for year 2 of the technical education curriculum
for technical education at upper secondary level(MoEYS, 2015). The curriculum contents for thefive trades are embedded in the questionnaire
for student rating so that content validity wasachieved. In addition, students from five GTHSs
have been studying curriculum contents of fivetrades at their respective schools. Therefore,
construct validity was ensured because a

Results
The results emerged from data analysis
answering research questions. The demographic
information of participants and GTHSs wereshown in <Table 1>. The trades for each school
were also highlighted in the table, capturing
sexes and years of studies of the participants.
Electronics
The results were shown in the importanceperformancematrixandimportance-

Table 1. Demographic Information of General and Technical High Schools

Grand Total

74

FemaleTotal

Year 2

Year 2

Total

Female

Male

15 15

Preah Norodom
Sihamoni GTHSMale

Sub total

6

Year 2

Accounting andManagement

Total

6

9

Preah Bat
Samdach Preah
Borom Neat
Norodom Sihamoni GTHS

4

20 24

24

20 24

24

32 32

31 37 37
8

FemaleAnimalHusbandarySant Franscios
Private GTHS

Male

5

6

Year 2Agronomy

29 3

Total

4

28 28

FemaleElectricity

8

Kampong Chheuteal Demonstration GTHS

Male

3

20

Year 2

Electronics

Total

2

Community
Development
Institute

FemaleTradesMale

No

40 48 481

14 15 1527

53 80 80 37 43 80 80

9

6

15 15

5

9

14

14

5

9

14

14 4

213

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Songheang Ai and Vorn Tim

Table 2. Importance-Performance Rating for Electronics
Electronics for Year-Two Students
Abb.

Attribute

Kampong Chheuteal Demonstration GTHS
N

Satisfaction

Importance

Mean

SD

Mean

SD

Kh

Khmer Language

28

3.75

0.7

4.12

0.77

Eng

English Language

28

3.5

0.92

4.04

0.72

M

Maths

28

3.68

0.72

4.15

0.83

AC

Administrative computer

28

3.5

0.92

4

0.75

C

Civics and Morality

28

3.57

0.92

3.65

0.89

PE

Physical education

28

3.43

1.14

3.62

0.85

P

Physics

28

3.75

0.93

3.81

0.94

FT

Foundation of telecommunication

28

3.46

1.32

3.62

1.44

CA

Circuit arrangement

28

3.25

1.4

3.58

1.33

MP

Mircro processor

28

3.32

1.68

3.27

1.71

CC1

Computer coding 1

28

3.46

1.55

3.35

1.57

PI

Project implementation

28

3.14

1.56

3.19

1.58

performance table. Only Kampong Chheuteal
demonstration GTHS delivers this trade. 26
year-2 students filled out the paper-basedquestionnaire. The importance-performance
rating was shown in <Table 2>. The 12-item scale
showed a reliability of Cronbach Alpha α=.801
for importance and a reliability of Cronbach
Alpha α= .697 for performance. The reliability
levels were acceptable for further analysis.
Resulting from importance-performance
rating, a matrix of importance-performance
was highlighted in [Figure 2]. There are 12
subjects requiring year-2 students to takecourses in. No subjects fell into quadrant I.
Three subjects, namely Maths, Khmer, andPhysics fell into quadrant II. Six subjects, namely
Project Implementation, Micro-processor,
Computer Coding 1, Circuit Arrangement,
Physical Education, and Foundation of
Telecommunication fell into quadrant III. No
subjects fell into quadrant IV. However, somesubjects fell into the middle of two quadrants

such as Administrative Computer and English(Middle of quadrant I and II), and Civics andMorality (Middle of quadrant II and IV).
Electricity
Only Kampong Chheuteal GTHS delivers
this trade. The results were shown in theimportance-performance rating in <Table 3>
and the importance-performance matrix in[Figure 3]. The 15-item scale showed a reliabilityof Cronbach Alpha α = .784 for importanceand a reliability of Cronbach Alpha α = .700
for performance. The reliability levels were
acceptable for further analysis.
Importance-performance matrix denotes
four different quadrants separating different
zones. Year-2 students are required to takecourses of 15 subjects. The subject Computer
Control fell into to quadrant I. Four subjects,
namely Computer, Basics of Network, Khmer,
and Technical Painting fell into quadrant II.

Journal of Southeast Asian Education (Vol. 1 | Special Issue): 70 – 84 (2022)

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Assessing the Curriculum Implementation Effectiveness at General and Technical High Schools in Cambodia

Figure 2. Importance-Performance Matrix for Electronics
Table 3. Importance-Performance Rating for electricity
Electronics for Year Two Students
Abb.

Attribute

Kampong Chheuteal Demonstration GTHS
N

76

Satisfaction

Importance

Mean

SD

Mean

SD

M

Maths

32

3.94

0.67

4.31

0.69

Kh

Khmer Language

32

4.22

0.55

4.22

0.61

Eng

English Language

32

3.53

0.98

3.94

0.88

C

Computer

32

4.03

0.78

4.25

0.67

Cs

Civics and Morality

32

3.9

0.79

3.72

0.81

PE

Physical education

32

3.81

0.97

3.75

0.8

P

Physics

32

3.78

0.91

4.16

0.72

BE

Basics of electricity

32

3.94

1.05

4.38

0.61

TP

Technical painting

32

4.34

0.65

4.38

0.61

BN

Basics of network

32

4.13

0.87

4.22

0.87

CC

Computer control

32

3.88

0.71

4.22

0.61

SB

Small-scale business

32

3.47

1.05

3.72

0.89

PI

Project implementation

32

4.13

0.79

4.13

0.87

Int

Internship

32

3.94

0.84

4.09

0.73

ST

Study tour

32

4.34

0.87

4.19

0.86

Journal of Southeast Asian Education (Vol. 1 | Special Issue): 70 – 84 (2022)

Songheang Ai and Vorn Tim

Five subjects, namely Small-Scale Business,
English Language, Physical Education, Civics
and Morality, and Physics fell into quadrant III.
One subject Project Implementation fell into
quadrant IV. However, some subjects fell into
the middle of two quadrants consisting of Basics
of Electricity and Maths (Middle of quadrant I
and II), Study Tour (Middle of quadrant II andIV), and Internship (Middle of quadrant III andIV).
Agronomy
Total participants of 76 students from three
GTHSs consisting of Community Development
Institute (37 participants), Preah Sihanouk
GTHS (24 participants), Saint Francois GTHS
(15 participants) were assessed. The results
were shown in Importance-Performance ratingin <Table 4> and Importance-Performance
Matrix in [Figure 4]. The 13-item scale showeda reliability of Cronbach Alpha α=.774 forimportance and a reliability of Cronbach Alphaα= .723 for performance. The reliability levels
were acceptable for further analysis.
Year-2 students are required to take courses of
13 subjects. Two subjects, namely Administrative
Computer and Khmer Language fell into quadrant
I. Two subjects, namely Maths and Techniques of
Rice Planting fell into quadrant II. Four subjects,
namely Research, Physical Education, Civics andMorality, and Survey and Village Arrangement
fell into quadrant III. Two subjects, namely
Biology and Clop Planting and Management fell
into quadrant IV. However, some subjects fell
into the middle of two quadrants consisting ofEnglish Language (Middle of quadrant I and II),

Figure 3. Importance-Performance Matrix for Electricity
Journal of Southeast Asian Education (Vol. 1 | Special Issue): 70 – 84 (2022)

77Assessing the Curriculum Implementation Effectiveness at General and Technical High Schools in Cambodia

Table 4. Importance-Performance Rating for Agronomy
Year-Two Students
Abb.

Attribute

Agronomy for 3 GHTSs
N

Satisfaction

Importance

Mean

SD

Mean

SD

Kh

Khmer Language

76

3.96

0.77

4.36

0.69

Eng

English Language

76

3.97

0.84

4.2

0.92

M

Maths

76

4.04

0.88

4.17

0.85

AC

Administrative computer

76

3.82

1.12

4.13

0.9

C

Civics and Morality

76

3.78

1

3.76

0.98

PE

Physical education

76

3.65

1.13

3.7

0.91

Bi

Biology

76

4.04

0.94

2.38

1.46

CPM

Crop planting and management

76

4.14

0.77

3.99

1.01

EA

Environment and agriculture

76

4.04

0.72

4.09

0.7

MT

Modern techniques

76

4.13

0.86

4.09

0.73

TRP1

Techniques of rice planting

76

4.14

0.96

4.32

0.96

SVA

Survey and village arrangement

76

3.61

1.25

3.97

1.12

R

Research

76

3.36

1.3

4

1.15

Figure 4. Importance-Performance Matrix for Agronomy

78

Journal of Southeast Asian Education (Vol. 1 | Special Issue): 70 – 84 (2022)

Songheang Ai and Vorn Tim

and Environment and Agriculture, and Modern
Techniques (Middle of quadrant II and IV).
Animal Husbandry
Four GTHSs were assessed with 62 total
participants for data collection. The 18-item scale
showed a reliability of Cronbach Alpha α=.808 forimportance and a reliability of Cronbach Alphaα= .752for performance. The reliability levels
were acceptable for further analysis because the
Cronbach Alpha is greater than .700. The results
were shown in the importance-performance
rating in <Table 5> and importance-performancematrix in [Figure 5].
Among 18 subjects, Maths fell into quadrant
I. Seven subjects fell into quadrant II consistingof food and food production; hatching andhatch preparation; animal reproduction; bird
raising; domestic chicken, duck and goose
raising; bird raising plan; and Khmer language.
There are eight subjects the fell into quadrant
III, namely administrative computer, English
language, survey and village arrangement, cattle
dairy breeding, research of farmers’ activities,
Chemistry, Civics and morality, and Physicaleducation. Finally, two subjects fell into the
middle of two quadrant II, III, and IV, namely pig
raising plan and Biology.
Accounting and Management
One GTHS named community development
institute consisting of 15 year-two students filled

Table 5. Importance-Performance Rating for Animal Husbandry
Year TwoPreah Bat Samdach Preah Borom Neat Norodom Sihamoni and Kampong Chheuteal Demonstration GTHS
Abb.

Attribute

N

Satisfaction

Importance

Mean

SD

Mean

SD

M

Maths

62

3.84

0.67

4.26

0.81

Kh

Khmer Language

62

4.14

0.66

4.27

0.89

Eng

English Language

62

4.14

0.66

4.27

0.89

AC

Administrative computer

62

3.73

0.95

4.08

0.96

C

Civics and Morality

62

3.69

0.92

3.9

0.88

PE

Physical education

62

3.63

1.12

3.66

1.16

Ch

Chemistry

62

3.7

0.63

3.87

0.86

Bi

Biology

62

4.08

0.76

4.08

0.86

HHP

Hatching and hatch preparation

62

4.38

0.7

4.45

0.62

FFP

Food and food production

62

4.2

0.86

4.45

0.78

BRP

Bird raising plan

62

4.16

0.76

4.31

0.67

BR

Bird raising

62

4.23

0.75

4.34

0.7

PRP

Pig raising plan

62

4.22

0.68

4.24

0.69

DCDGR

Domestic chicken, duck and goose raising 62

4.31

0.73

4.32

0.62

AR

Animal reproduction

62

4.19

0.81

4.34

0.63

CDB

Cattle dairy breeding

62

3.98

0.97

3.98

0.97

SVA

Survey and village arrangement

62

3.8

1.16

3.95

1.27

RFA

Research of farmers’ activities

62

3.66

1.16

3.94

1.24

Journal of Southeast Asian Education (Vol. 1 | Special Issue): 70 – 84 (2022)

79Assessing the Curriculum Implementation Effectiveness at General and Technical High Schools in Cambodia

Figure 5. Importance-Performance Matrix for Agronomy
out the questionnaire. Students are required to
study 12 subjects comprised of general subjects
and vocational subjects.
The results were shown in importanceperformance rating in <Table 6> and importanceperformance matrix in [Figure 6]. The 12-item
scale shown a reliability of Cronbach Alpha
α=.700 for importance and a reliability of
Cronbach Alpha α= .782 for performance. The
Cronbach Alpha of more than .700 is acceptablefor internal consistency for all items within
the scale (George & Mallery, 2003; Joseph&Rosemary, 2003).
Among 12 subjects, Maths fell into
quadrant I. Three subjects, namely Financial
Accounting Implementation, Computer Skill
Implementation, and English for Business 1 fell
into quadrant II. Four subjects, namely Physical
Education, Management Implementation, Civics

80and Morality, and Administrative Computer
fell into quadrant III. However, four subjects
fell into the middle of two quadrants, namely
English Language (Middle of quadrant I and III),
Khmer Language (Middle of quadrant I and II),
Economics (Middle of quadrant II and IV), andBasics of Tax Law (Middle of four quadrants).
Discussion and Conclusions
To assess the curriculum implementation
effectiveness, some typical subjects wereidentified by falling into different quadrants
among the four quadrants for each trade.
For example, for electronics, three subjects,
namely Maths, Khmer language, and Physics
work well that should be intensified in lightof year-2 students’ perception. The generalsubject cluster helps support the graduates
in seeking jobs (Kolawole & Ogungbade,

Journal of Southeast Asian Education (Vol. 1 | Special Issue): 70 – 84 (2022)

Songheang Ai and Vorn Tim

Table 6. Importance-Performance Rating for Accounting and Management
Abb.

Attribute

Community Development Institute
N

Satisfaction

Importance

Mean

SD

Mean

SD

Kh

Khmer Language

15

3.87

0.83

4.2

0.56

Eng

English Language

15

3.53

1.13

4.07

0.88

M

Maths

15

3.47

0.99

4.27

0.7

AC

Administrative Computer

15

3.27

1.03

3.73

0.96

C

Civics and Morality

15

3.4

0.74

3.67

1.11

PE

Physical education

15

3

1.2

2.67

1.18

E

Economics

15

4.13

0.64

4.07

0.59

FAI

Financial accounting implementation

15

3.93

0.88

4.4

0.74

BTL

Basics of tax law

15

3.87

0.74

4.07

0.46

MI

Management implementation

15

3

0.93

3.53

0.92

CSI

Computer skill implementation

15

4.07

0.7

4.27

0.46

EB1

English for business 1

15

4.13

0.64

4.27

0.8

Figure 6. Importance-Performance Matrix for Agronomy2021). The students might have foundational
knowledge and skills for these subjects. Six
subjects, namely Project Implementation,
Micro-processor, Computer Coding 1, Circuit
Arrangement,
Physical
Education,andFoundation of Telecommunication need to be

re-considered for modification and correction.
Required resources should be allocated out.
For electricity, the subject Computer Control
can be considered for resource intensification
otherwise it might be a problem. Four subjects
namely Computer, Basics of Network, Khmer

Journal of Southeast Asian Education (Vol. 1 | Special Issue): 70 – 84 (2022)

81

Assessing the Curriculum Implementation Effectiveness at General and Technical High Schools in Cambodia

language, and Technical Painting work well. They
are fine and should continue to be implemented.
Five subjects, namely Small-Scale Business,
English Language, Physical Education, Civics
and Morality, and Physics should be remarkably
considered for modification and correction. One
subject, Project Implementation, should be reconsidered. This subject might be difficult andcomplicated for students.
For animal husbandry, Maths needs attention,
meaning that year-2 students are not good at it.
They should have extra classes part-time. Seven
subjects consisting of food and food production;
hatching and hatch preparation; animal
reproduction; bird raising; domestic chicken,
duck and goose raising; bird raising plan; andKhmer language work well, meaning that theymight have more time in practice in reality at
school or at home. There are eight subjects,
namely administrative computer, English
language, survey and village arrangement,
cattle dairy breeding, research of farmers’
activities, Chemistry, Civics and Morality, andPhysical education that need modification andcorrection. These subjects might be difficult anddon’t capture students’ interests. For agronomy,
two subjects, namely Administrative Computerand Khmer Language need attention to beconsidered. More resources should be allocatedfor these subjects. Two subjects, namely Maths
and Techniques of Rice Planting work well inlight of students’ perception and interests.
Four subjects, namely Research, Physical
Education, Civics and Morality, and Survey andVillage Arrangement need modification andcorrection. These might be due to complexity.
Two subjects, namely Biology and Crop Planting
and Management need modification. Resources82

should be moved out. The contents of thesesubject might not be relevant to the trade.
For Accounting and Management, Maths, theyneed more attention for resource mobilization.
Maths teachers should pay more attention on
this subject. Three subjects, namely Financial
Accounting Implementation, Computer Skill
Implementation, and English for Business 1 work
well. This might be due to students’ foundational
background on these subjects, or teachers
might teach well. Four subjects, namely Physical
Education, Management Implementation, Civics
and Morality, and Administrative Computer needmodification and correction. It is consistent with
Ai (2015) that vocational students in Malaysia
are required to study Malay language, English
language, Mathematics, and Islamic, Civics andMorality, and History.
The study has some limitations to beconsidered. There was only one male participant
rating the questionnaire for accounting andmanagement trade. 28 participants rated thequestionnaire from one GTHS for electronics
trade. There were 32 participants rating thequestionnaire from only one GTHS. The future
research should be undertaken to enlarge thenumber of participants with more GTHS andmore trades.
Resulting from the findings, the TVET
curriculum developers should revise the existing
curriculum to capture students’ interests to
reduce dropout rates. Technical educationteachers should apply a variety of teaching
methods to engage students in learning suchas inquiry-based learning, project-basedlearning, concept-based learning, etc. Teachers
should design lesson plans putting emphasison critical thinking and problem solving with

Journal of Southeast Asian Education (Vol. 1 | Special Issue): 70 – 84 (2022)

Songheang Ai and Vorn Tim

multidisciplinary learning activities (Tongchai,
Wichaidit, & Koocharoenpisal, 2019). Problembased learning encourages students’ teamwork
skills in inquiring new concepts (Kandaiah &Dollah, 2019). Finally, school management
should guide and monitor teachers’ teachingto ensure that they are on the right direction
instructionally.
TVET curriculum implementation canbe achieved fruitfully with stakeholder
involvements such as students, teachers, school
management, industries, government, andcommunity. Exceptionally, teachers’ tremendous
contributions and efforts can be a catalyst
used to achieve the curriculum objectives andsyllabus (Ai, 2019). Curriculum developers,
industry representatives, academic educationteachers for general education subject clusters
and vocational education teachers for vocational
subject clusters might sit together to revise
the curriculum following this study’s results.
If consensus can be reached among them, anintegrated and standardized curriculum withholistic approach will be developed to close thedemand and supply needs.

helping us fill out the questionnaires during datacollection. Without the support of these people,
our research would not have been possible.
References
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technical and vocational education andtraining system in Cambodia [ADB briefs].
Manila, Philippines: Asian Development Bank.
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learning in the era of technological revolution[ADB economics working paper series].
Manila, Philippines: Asian Development Bank.
Ai, S. (2015). A comparative study on the TVET
curriculum at upper secondary level ofCambodia and other 4 Asian countries[Master’s thesis]. Cheonan, South Korea:
Korea University of Technology and Education.
Ai, S. (2019). Exploring the competency components
for technical and vocational educationteachers in Cambodia through a qualitive
approach [Doctoral dissertation]. Cheonan,
South Korea: Korea University of Technology
and Education.
Afolabi, S. O. (2014). Quality of accounting

Acknowledgements
We, SEAMEO TED, would like to express our
profound thanks and gratitude to the Ministryof Education, Youth and Sport, Cambodia forassigning us to conduct a research study on“Assessing the Curriculum Implementation
Effectiveness at General and Technical HighSchools in Cambodia’’. We would also like to thankgeneral and technical high school principals,
teachers and students for their hospitality,
kindness, openness, help, cooperation and theiractive involvement in facilitating, assisting andgraduates: A survey of employers in Nigeria.
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Journal of Southeast Asian Education (Vol. 1 | Special Issue): 70 – 84 (2022)

Journal of Southeast Asian Education (Vol. 1 | Special Issue): 85 – 94 (2022)

Teacher Education Past and Present:
Addressing Current Challenges for a Better Futurewww.seameo.org

Preparing TVET Teachers in Response to COVID-19 and Industry 4.0
Paryono Paryono*
Research Division, SEAMEO VOCTECH, Bandar Seri Begawan, Brunei Darussalam*Corresponding Author
Paryono Paryono
E-mail:paryono@voctech.edu.bn

ABSTRACT
It is expected that Covid 19 and digitalization will have a deep impact on automation
and a massive influence on employment and the workforce requirements. In
response, TVET (Technical and Vocational Education and Training) must be able
to stay relevant to the needs of labor market and seize the opportunities throughthe enhancement of qualified work and the profiling of occupations which could
contribute to a stabilization and further development of the TVET systems. In
this era, TVET should be able to prepare learners to be multi-skilled knowledge
workforce, versatile, willing to learn continuously and able to acquire, apply andcreate knowledge, capabilities, and skills, particularly in modern technologies.
Besides having the environment conducive for learning 21st Century competencies,
teachers must have appropriate facilitation skills and didactical approaches, andthe students need to be self-directed and self-reliant in learning. Based on theexperience from conducting capacity building programmes to TVET teachers inSoutheast Asia organized by GIZ-RECOTVET and SEAMEO VOCTECH in 2019 and2020, this paper covers among others the changes in the world of work due todigitalization and their impact on workforce competency requirements, ways
and strategies that TVET teachers must have on how to impart relevant the 21stCentury abilities, how to condition self-reliant learning, and introduce the conceptof learn- and work-assignments (LWAs)-- core elements of the didactic approachdealing with different requirements of TVET. This paper will also emphasize theimportance of industrial experience and relevant digital competencies for TVET
teachers.

Keywords: Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET), teacher preparation, digitalization,
Industrial Revolution, pandemic responses

Published by SEAMEO Organization, ISSN 1513-4601 | Editorial Office: SEAMEO Secretariat, 920 Sukhumvit Road, Bangkok, Thailand.
Tel: (+662) 3910144 | Fax: (+662) 3812587 | E-mail: secretariat@seameo.org This article is under CC BY-SA License.

Preparing TVET Teachers in Response to COVID-19 and Industry 4.0

Introduction
At the global level, research findings revealthat in the next 10 to 15 years, about one-thirdof current jobs will change due to the impact of
information technology, robotics, automation
and artificial intelligence. Moreover, about 40
per cent of global workers will not have jobappropriate skills. Currently, the shortage ofskilled workers and skills mismatch have resulted
in six per cent GDP loss, equivalent to 5 trillion
US dollars globally, every year. If countries
concentrate on labour skill development, GDP
growth can be boosted by up to two per cent.”(World Economic Forum, 2016)
In ASEAN, digital technology and automation
are changing ASEAN economies and societies.
Many conventional jobs with low productivity
are now diminishing, while technology- based
jobs are emerging. Workers equipped withtechnical skills are poised to take advantage ofthese newly formed jobs.” (The ASEAN’s August2020 Issue).
This technological trend has been exacerbatedby current pandemic of Covid-19 that has
disrupted the way we work, learn and live andcapitalized the use of technology especiallythrough online platforms. This Covid-19 has
forced every country to have contingency plans
either short, medium and long-term plan tominimize the adverse effect of the pandemic andto seize the opportunities that the adversity may
offer. Based on OECD (2020) there are TVET policy
and practices in coping with Covid-19: shortterm or coping strategy, mid-term or managing
the challenges, and long-term to improve andaccellerate the inititiaves. The short-term policy
and practices are meant to reduce learning

86

losses while schools are closed and support the
emergency response through skills training. The
mid-term strategies are to promote learning
recovery as schools and businesses gradually
reopen. The long-term strategy is to build on
innovative policy responses and lessons learned
during the first two phases and build back better
programmes.
Teachers as one of the pillars in education isin the forefront in confronting the challenges,
preparing for suitable contents and deliveries,
navigating complex health requirements andprotocols and assuring quality of education
during the difficult time. For that reason,
they must be prepared and are continuously
developed both in the pre-service and in-service
teacher education and training.
This paper tries to explore various strategies
in preparing TVET teachers during pre-service
teacher education and in-service teacher
training for suitable contents, pedagogy, andmodalities to be an effective teachers in the eraof digitalisation and in response to the pandemic
challenges.
Methodologies
This paper was based on two rounds of aregional (10 Southeast Asian countries) training
programmes on Innovative Teaching and
Learning for Industrial Changes Due to Industry
4.0 organised by SEAMEO VOCTECH and GIZRECOTVET and feedbacks from participants. The
first round was conducted in-person in Bangkok
Thailand on 5 to 16 August 2019 attended by
26 master trainers and the second round wasdelivered on 23 to 27 November 2020 online
using Thinkific as the learning management

Journal of Southeast Asian Education (Vol. 1 | Special Issue): 85 – 94 (2022)

Paryono Paryono

platform attended by 15 master trainers. A
survey was also conducted to the alumni of the
training and directors or school principals who
sent the participants to gather their feedback
and suggestions to improve the training
programmes. In addition, the paper was also
based secondary data and literature reviews
from various studies, particularly those with thecontext of TVET in the era of digitalisation and in
response to the Covid-19 pandemic.
Findings
1. Competencies to be included in the preservice education and in-service training
programmes
a. Responding to IR 4.0 according to Impuls
and Regional TVET Teacher Standards(RTTS) for ASEAN.
According to Impuls (2015), TVET institutions
should pay attention to the three pilars: process,technology, and organisation in order to beready for Industrial Revolution 4.0 (IR 4.0). The
first pilar, the process covers curriculum relevantto the new technology, engagement of various
stakeholders to stay connected and to shareresources, and pedagogy relevant to impart fastchanging competencies. Vocational education isconstantly changing to meet future trends; theinstitutions must be able to transform rapidly;
the curriculum should address or integrate IR 4.0
technology, such as big data, augmented reality(AR), simulation, Internmet of Things (IoT),
Cloud Computing, etc. Considering that running
TVET programmes is very costly especially tomeet the technological requirements, andthe requirements from industry are always
changing, the institutions must collaborate

with relevant industry. IR 4.0 is about current
and future technology; TVET teachers must
adopt and provide future skills and implement
innovative pedagogy and self-reliant learning.
The second pilar of TVET in the ear of
IR 4.0 or in short VE 4.0 or TVET 4.0 is thetechnology including having up-to-datefacilities, intelligence, and connectivity. The
school infrastructure should be fully equipped
to adopt digital innovation; learning facilities
are conducive for technological development,
good internet connectivity, and user friendly
Learning Management System (LMS) that can beaccessed remotely and the teachers can analyze
students’ learning based on real time data. The
technology should be able to manage risk andcyber-security.
The third pilar of TVET 4.0 is the organisation
which covers the structure and management
as well as talent readiness. To be TVET 4.0
ready, the institutions should have IR4.0 in theorganization’s vision and mission, policies thatencourage the institution to adapt/embrace/transform IR4.0 related technologies, and havestrategies/plan to implement IR4.0-related
technology. In addition, the TVET teaching
personnel is capable to adopt IR4.0-related
technology, has training plans in place todevelop their capabilities, skill & competencies
and the school has set up a task force to drive
IR4.0 integration.
Pertaining to TVET teacher competencies
according to Impuls (2020), teachers shouldhave competencies on digital literacies, how
to integrate IR 4.0 technology, and masterinnovative pedagogy, including vocational
didactics and learning theories, especially self-

Journal of Southeast Asian Education (Vol. 1 | Special Issue): 85 – 94 (2022)

87Preparing TVET Teachers in Response to COVID-19 and Industry 4.0

reliant learning in the context of learn and work
assignments. The implementation of projectand/or problem-based learning is one of theapproaches that has high degree of self-reliant
learning.
This is also in line with Regional TVET
Teacher Standards (RTTS ) for ASEAN (SEAMEOVOCTECH and GIZ, 2020) that TVET teachers
should posses two competence areas: (1)personal and social competence area, and(2) vocational discipline, research, didactics,
pedagogy and management. Consideringthat in ASEAN Member States, TVET teachers
comprise four types or groups of occupation1,
the above requirements are particularly
relevant for those teaching vocational andtechnical courses or TVET school teachers,
trainers and instructors, and in-company
trainers. Personal and Social Competences
describe the competences of a TVET teacher
to become acquainted with the TVET schoolas an institution, with the underlying systemand personal attitudes for a constantly further
developing of own skills and competences.
Vocational Research, Discipline, Didactics,
Pedagogical and Management Competences
describe the competences for identification,
preparation and implementation of teachingwith a focus on occupations in the vocational
field and based on competences in a vocational
1

Acording to Euler (2018) and Parsons et al. (2009),
there are four different types of TVET teacher: (1)General teachers with a focus on general education
subjects, (2) TVETschoolteachers with a focus on
theoretical knowledge, (3) Trainers and instructors
with a focus on practical exercises, and (4) In-company
trainers with a focus on training and work-based

discipline. Vocational Research is competencesof TVET teachers for determining occupational
competence requirements, developments of
the occupations and teaching requirements.
Vocational Discipline is competences of TVET
teachers for analysing the occupational subject(Manufacturing, Automotive, etc. ) and thereferred requirements and changes in the worldof work. Vocational Didactics deal with how
to choose and structure relevant contents andmethods for supporting vocational learning
processes. Vocational Pedagogy is competencesof TVET teachers for planning, carrying throughand assessment of learning sessions. Lastly,
Vocational Management is competencesof TVET teachers for organizing and further
developing vocational schools and vocational
education programmes (SEAMEO VOCTECH and
GIZ, 2020, p.40).
The TVET teacher competences identified
under Impuls (2015) and SEAMEO VOCTECH and
GIZ (2020) are very relevant to be included in preservice and in-service education and training,particularly in preparing them for IR 4.0.
b. Responding to Covid-19:
 E-learning
One of the salient strategies in response
to Covid-19 that has been affecting teacher’sroles is teaching-learning through online andvirtual platform and blended modes (OECD,2020). Consequently, during the pre- and inservice training, there is a need to prepare anddevelop teachers so that they will be able touse technology for continuence of learning due
to Covid-19 disruptions. Improving teachers’
digital skills is important both during pre- andin-service training. OECD (2020) warns thatlearning in companies.

88

Journal of Southeast Asian Education (Vol. 1 | Special Issue): 85 – 94 (2022)

Paryono Paryono“while distance learning cannot completely
replace in-person training, and its effectiveness
depends on the occupation, it can nonethelesshelp learners to remain engaged and continue
to make progress in their studies. These
efforts at online delivery and communications
can enhance one-to-one digital and realworld interactions between learners, learning
providers and employers.”
 Support for rapid assessment andrespond to emerging skills
Teachers should be able to support for rapid
assessment and respond to emerging skill
needs by designing new or expand current TVET
programs in collaboration with industries. TVET
teachers should be able to prepare for flexible
learning solutions such as flexible work-basedlearning and creating online platforms andvirtual simulator training contents (OECD, 2020;
The World Bank, 2020; ILO, 2020; Majumdar
and Araiztegui, 2020).
 Micro modular and credential andrecognition of prior learning (RPL)
Teachers should be aware of and offer micro
modular or courses to provide more flexible
arrangements to the students and trainees.
These micro modular courses eventually willlead to micro credentials that can be recognised
for further leaning and for employment.
Recognising the prior learning of adults
from various learning and working experiencecan be achieved through a standalone
assessment and/or portfolio. In the sectors
withshortages or expected shortages such as
medical and health care sectors, some countries
are issuing short-term, fast-track licenses thus
offring flexible skills assessment and awardingof qualifications is necessary, especially in thetime of crisis (OECD, 2020).
2. Various Modalities for acquiring relevant
TVET competencies:a. In the classroom and workshop
For the pre-service education for TVET
teachers, formal learning at teacher training
centres or university is the most common
accompanied by some working experience inindustry. For in-service TVET teacher training,the development can take place in a training
centre, industry, or TVET schools. During thetime of crisis, it is high time to leverage the links
between work-based and school-based TVET(OECD, 2020).
For in-service teacher training anddevelopment, special areas of capacity
development to maintain the relevancy of the
TVET competencies and to refresh vocational
didactics and pedagogy are necessary. Updating
the digital skills, responding to the competencies
required for IR 4.0, updating technical andvocational competencies by participating
in industrial attachments are amongst thecontents and strategies to be considered during
Covid-19. Considering the chalanges facedby some teachers to attent normal caopacity
building programmes, the TVET managers may
consider flexible, ubiquitous, and micro content
deliveries.
Based on the experience of the first roundregional training programmes organised inperson by SEAMEO VOCTECH in collaboration
with GIZ-RECOTVET on deliveries of module
title Innovative Teaching and Learning for
Industrial Changes Due to IR 4.0 in 2019,

Journal of Southeast Asian Education (Vol. 1 | Special Issue): 85 – 94 (2022)

89Preparing TVET Teachers in Response to COVID-19 and Industry 4.0

90participants rated highly on the two-weektraining programme. Using Likert scale of 1 to
5 (1 is poor and 5 is excellent), 23 participants
rated the first week of the programme on
the intructors was 4.49, training deliveries
were 4.37, venue and facilities were 4.57, andmeeting expectations and satisfaction were
4.41. During the second week, the participantsalso rated higly in the 4 areas mentioned:
the instructors were rated 4.54, the training
deliveries were rated 4.40, the venue andfacilities were rated 4.44, and on the meeting
expectations and satisfaction were rated 4.39.
(SEAMEO VOCTECH, 2019).

consequences for the workforce due toIndustry 4.0”; LWA 2 was on “Man-machinecommunication, optimization of automationand consequences for the workforce andsecurity”; LWA 3 was on “Process management,
optimization of automation and guarantee
of process and data safety”; and LWA 4 wason “Planning of teaching lessons and use ofmultifunctional didactical approaches fordeepening understanding of digital-based/
modern industry”.

During the second round, the training
programme were delivered online for theduration of one week, instead of two, in 2020in the mist of Covid-19. This online training wasusing Thinkific as the platform for the Learning
Management System and participated by 15participants. Out of the 15 participants, 13
responded to the course evaluation and theresults shows that they rated highly. Using
the Likert scale of 1 (poor) to 5 (excellent),
the respondent rated the facilitators 4.5, theonline facility was rated 4.5, the software andtechnical tools were rated 4.1, the navigationof the online course and online platform wererated 4.0, meeting the expectation was rated
4.25, and level of satisfaction was 4.42. In thegeneral comments, participants expressed theirpreference for in-person training than online,
especially in delivering hands-on practical skill
contents. (SEA-VET Learning, 2020).

during Covid-19 pandemic, the 36 participants
have provided inputs 6 months after the second
round of the training for the improvementsof the next programmes. The feedbacks are
summarised as follows:

Based on the experience of the two regional
training programmes on Innovative Teachingand Learning for Industrial Changes Due to IR 4.0

Using the Learn and Work Assignment (LWA)• Participants frequently used Zoom, Google
Meeting, Google Classroom, Moodle, MS
Teams, and Kahoot to support their online
lessons.
• In order for the TVET institutions to deliver
training on IR 4.0 related topics, they totallyneed a vision for further development oftraining in a digitalized world has to becreated (70% or respondents), curricula
have to be updated to cover Industry 4.0
requirements (60%), and rooms have tobe prepared and updated with digitalequipment (57%). In addition, 39% ofthem perceived that they need further
development of teamwork to manage thedigital transformation.

model, this course consists of 4 components:
LWA1 was on “New paradigm: the changes
of management- and work- processes and• With regards to digital competencies of
TVET teachers in the region, they strongly
need competency to develop digital

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Paryono Paryono

teaching and learning materials (75%of the respondents), to communicate
with learners to conduct an online
classroom (63%), and to organise an online
classroom (51%). In addition, 48% of themperceived that they need competencies
to administer—which is more than justorganising materials online, but also
setting the LMS and registration-- online
classroom.
• Pertaining to the need of slightly complex
digital tools, 60% of them perceived thatthey strongly need the tools to ommunicate
with learners to conduct an online
classroom, to integrate digital teachingclassroom (54%), and to administer an
online classroom (45%).
• Pertaining to digital competencies related
to data privacy and protection, 94% of
respondents perceived that practise data
privacy and protection to protect sensitive
data of learners, teachers and contents
as well as restrict access to resources
as appropriate when conducting online
classroom/training;63%
respondedthat they totally need data privacy andprotection training, and 64% of them
responded that they need to apply the
copyright rules to the digital resources forschool purposes (images, text, audio andand learning materials to fit pedagogicaland methodological lesson plans and tocommunicate with learners to conduct
an online classroom (57%). In addition,
they perceived that they need the tools
to administer an online classroom (72%)
and to organise an online classroom (57%).
Slightly complex digital tools are videos,Learning Management System (LMS),
E-learning platform, Adobe Captiva, Cloudsystem, Open Educational Resources (OER),
Data analytic tools, Google classroom, andremote support software.
• Pertaining to the need of advanced
digital tools e.g., AR, VR, AI, coding, andsimulation software, they perceived thatthey strongly (totally) need the tools todevelop digital teaching and learningmaterials (63%), to enhance pedagogicaland professional practices (57%), and tocommunicate with learners to conduct anfilm).
• Other digital competencies that the
respondents added are webserver,
robot technology, 3D printing/additive
manufacturing, data visualization, digitalcitizenship, 3d-CAD, automation designing,
simulation software, and video editing/making and transmission.
• Pertaining to preferences and online
learning environment of TVET teachers,
67% of them undertook self-pace learningin MORNING, 94% of them used LAPTOP
for online learning, 55% of them had goodinternet connection, and 94% of themused WIFI for online learning.

online classroom (51%). In addition, theyneed advanced tools to organise an online

b. Industrial attachments
Some countries under ASEAN are
encouraging TVET teachers to participate inindustrial attachments after certain period oftime (every 1 to 3 years) such as in Singapore
and Thailand. During Covid-19, this can be
performed online as practiced under SEA-TVET

Journal of Southeast Asian Education (Vol. 1 | Special Issue): 85 – 94 (2022)

91Preparing TVET Teachers in Response to COVID-19 and Industry 4.0

Exchange Programmes by several colleges anduniversities in the Philippines and Indonesia
and those in Malaysia and Indonesia (SEAMEO,
2021).
Conclusions and recommendations
Conclusions
Based on the background and findings of thisstudy, the followings are some conclusions to bepresented in bullet points:• The use of sophisticated technology inindustry has affected fast changing futureof work and jobs.
• Digitalization as an instrument of
automation and Covid 19 pandemic willlead to a massive loss of jobs depending on
the country and the sectors. However, newjobs will be created and the workforce must
be prepared and re-trained accordingly. VE
must be able to response by enhancing
various components that support to VE
4.0 and TVET teachers must be preparedaccordingly.
• In preparing for the TVET teachers
through pre-service education and inservice training programmes, relevant
contents must be integrated in response
to IR 4.0 requirements including
digital literacies, how to integrate IR
4.0 technology, and master innovative
pedagogy, such as vocational didactics
and learning theories, especially selfreliant learning in the context of learn
and work assignments.
• The contents of pre-service educationand in-service training programmes
for TVET teachers should also refer to

92

RTTS covering (1) personal and social
competence area, and (2) vocational
discipline, research, didactics, pedagogy
and management.
• In response to the challenges due to
Covid-19 pandemic, TVET teachers shouldhave competencies in E-learning anddigital competencies to support rapid
assessment and to respond to emerging
skill needs, to be aware of and offer micro
modular or courses to provide more
flexible arrangements to the students andtrainees.
• Providing various modalities for acquiring
relevant TVET competencies such as in thein the classroom, workshop and industrial
attachment.
• Continue improving capacity building
programmes both in-person if possible
and/or online by considering the input
from participants and experts such asenhancing teachers’ digital competencies,
mastering both less complex and advanced
digital tools, as well as data privacy
and protection. This will help them tocommunicate with learners to conduct
an online classroom, to integrate digitalteaching and learning materials to fit
pedagogical and methodological lessonplans.
Recommendations
In brief, the paper offer the following
recommendations:• Prepare and develop teachers so thatthey will be able to use teachnology forcontinuence of learning due to Covid-19
disruptions. Improving teachers’ digital

Journal of Southeast Asian Education (Vol. 1 | Special Issue): 85 – 94 (2022)

Paryono Paryono

skills is important both during pre-service
education and in-service training.
• Teachers should be able to support rapid
assessment and to respond to emerging
skill needs by designing new or expand
current TVET programs in collaboration
with employers.
• Prepare for flexible learning solutions
such as flexible work-based learning andcreating online platforms and virtual
simulator training contents.
• Diversify learning areas and educationand training modalities and new quality
assurance systems.
• Facilitate modular training and microcredentialing in TVET and life-long learning.
• Integrate vocational didactics during thepre- and in-service education and training.
The above recommendations are relevant
for the policymakers at the national level who
are in charge for preparing TVET teachers, theschool principals and directors of TVET collegesin preparing for continuous professional
development for their teachers, and forteachers themselves in preparing for the
professional development to meet the needs ofcurrent and future TVET skills and pedagogicalcompetencies.

Impuls. (2015). Self-assessment of industry readiness
Context Germany’s Mechanical Engineering
industry and Plant Engineering Sectors.
htt p s : / / w w w. i n d u st r i e 4 0 - re a d i n e s s .
de/?lang=en
Majumdar, S. & Araiztegui, I. (2020). TechnicalVocational Education & Training – reflectionsin the issues facing TVET and its potential in
the time of COVID-19. Available at: https://drive.google.com/

file/d/1jj-drtBHoE--UoOY56yRydbkITsnG-ra/view
OECD. (2020). VET in a time of crisis: Building
foundationsforresilient

vocational

education and training systems. OECD Policy
Responses to Coronavirus (COVID-19).
Reply. (2019). Self-assessment of digital maturity.
Context: Worldwide run by Reply S.p.A. ,Corso Francia, 110 – 10143 Turin, Italy
SEAMEO.

(2021).

SEAMEO

OnlineLearning

Resources. https://www.seameo.org/Main_
programme/218
SEAMEO VOCTECH and GIZ. (2020). Regional TVET
Teacher Standard for ASEAN. Essential
Competencies for TVET Teachers in ASEAN.
Bangkok, Thailand: GIZ. https://sea-vet.
net/resources/467-regional-tvet-teacherstandard-for-asean
SEAMEO VOCTECH. (2019). Module 1: Innovative

References

Teaching

andLearningforIndustrial

ILO. (2020). Skills development in the time of

Changes due to Industry 4.0. Available:

COVID-19: Taking stock of the initial

http://learn.voctech.org/moodle/course/

responses in technical and vocationalview.php?id=7

education and training. Available at: https://www.ilo.org/ wcmsp5/groups/public/---ed_
emp/---ifp_skills/documents/publication/
wcms_766557.pdf.

SEA-VET Learning. (2020). Innovative Teachingand Learning for Industrial Changes due toIndustry 4.0. Module 1. Available: https://sea-vet.thinkific.com/courses/innovative-

Journal of Southeast Asian Education (Vol. 1 | Special Issue): 85 – 94 (2022)

93Preparing TVET Teachers in Response to COVID-19 and Industry 4.0

teaching-and-learning-for-industrial-

for the Fourth Industrial Revolution. Available:changes-due-to-industry-4-0

https://www3.weforum.org/docs/WEF_

The World Bank. (2020). TVET Systems’ response to

Future_of_Jobs.pdf

COVID-19: Challenges and Opportunities
World Economic Forum. (2016). The Future of Jobs
Employment, Skills and Workforce Strategy

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Journal of Southeast Asian Education (Vol. 1 | Special Issue): 95 – 98 (2022)

Teacher Education Past and Present:
Addressing Current Challenges for a Better Futurewww.seameo.org

Mathematics, Data Science and AI Education in the
University of Tsukuba
Kato Mitsuyasu M.D., Ph.D.*
Vice President and Executive Director for Education, University of Tsukuba, Japan*Corresponding Author
Kato Mitsuyasu M.D., Ph.D.
E-mail:kato.mitsuyasu.gu@u.tsukuba.ac.jp

ABSTRACTThe University of Tsukuba was founded 150 years ago in 1872 as Japan’s first
institution of higher education, and reorganized 49 years ago in 1973 as Japan’s
newest national comprehensive research university and a leader in reforming
the Japanese university system. Since its founding, the university has beencharacterized by an education that integrates the humanities and sciences, andhas made informatics a compulsory subject in all undergraduate courses. Today,
information literacy has become an essential basic knowledge for all people,
and in response to the demand for the development of human resources to lead
education in mathematics, data science, and AI, the University of Tsukuba hasestablished a new systematic program based on its history of producing humanresources to lead this field, and is taking on the role of disseminating this new
program to the world.

Keywords: Information literacy, JV-Campus, interdisciplinary skills, education, research

Introduction
Since the time of the founding of the
University of Tsukuba in 1973, the University
made two credits of the subject “information
literacy” a compulsory subject for all
undergraduate students, including arts andhumanities students. The University of Tsukuba
is a comprehensive university with wide range
academic fields including Physical education,
Sports, and Art and Design. So, the University ofTsukuba made a prescient decision at the timeof its foundation (1).
Providing specialized Education
In 1977, the University of Tsukuba established
the College of Information Sciences in the
Third Cluster of Colleges to provide specialized
education in this field. Graduates of the Collegeof Information Sciences include Yoichi Ochiai,

Published by SEAMEO Organization, ISSN 1513-4601 | Editorial Office: SEAMEO Secretariat, 920 Sukhumvit Road, Bangkok, Thailand.
Tel: (+662) 3910144 | Fax: (+662) 3812587 | E-mail: secretariat@seameo.org This article is under CC BY-SA License.

Mathematics, Data Science and AI Education in the University of Tsukuba

associate professor of the university andfamous media artist (2); Daiyu Nobori, managerof the Industrial Cyber Security Center of theInformation-Technology Promotion Agency,
Japan, president of SoftEther Corporation,and professor of the university’s IndustryGovernment-Academia Co-Creative Producer(3); Yukihiro Matsumoto, developer of theRuby programming language (4); and otheroutstanding leaders in this field. In relation to
Art and Design, John Maeda, research professor
at MIT Media Lab, and STEAM movement leader
in the USA (5).
The first Master’s and Doctoral programs

University of Tsukuba has establishedthe Headquarters for the Promotion ofInterdisciplinary Mathematics, Data Science,and AI Education in order to build a consistenteducational system for education in this field
for multiple levels and various target students.
In addition, starting on 2022, the University has
been selected along with ten other universities
as a base school for the Ministry of Education,
Culture, Sports, Science and Technology’s

in this field were established in 1978 and
1981, respectively, and have continued to beorganized and develop up to today. Last year,
six students have been selected for the Ministryof Economy, Trade and Industry’s Exploratory
IT Human Resources Development Project for
2021, and two of them have been certified assuper creators in the same project. This meansthat the University of Tsukuba has the largest
number of future leaders on this field.

nationwide project to promote the developmentof mathematics, data science, and AI education,and is expected to nurture top human resources
who will lead education and research in thisfield.

The Process to Establish the Program

Based on our achievements in advanced
mathematics, data science, and AI education
and research, we will add a doctoral education
program that applies our strengths ininterdisciplinary research to develop top andexpert human resources who can lead thecreation of innovations and the developmentof interdisciplinary IT human resources that cancontribute to the achievement of the SDGs.

In 2019, in addition to “information literacy”,
which has been offered since the opening of
the university, two credits of data science weremade compulsory for the entire University,and together they constitute a literacy-level
program in mathematics, data science, and AI
education. In 2021, this educational program
was selected as a Literacy Level Plus, which is
one level higher, by the Ministry of Education,
Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT)
in its accreditation system for mathematics, data

96

science, and AI education programs. So far, only
ten universities and one college of technology inJapan have been selected for the Literacy Level
Plus.

Figure 1 shows the concrete contents of thisinterdisciplinary mathematical, data science,and AI education programs.
Next Steps

The top doctoral personnel in the MDA field areleaders who specialize in this field with expertisein supercomputing, mathematical algorithms, bigdata analysis, deep learning, etc., and in human

Journal of Southeast Asian Education (Vol. 1 | Special Issue): 95 – 98 (2022)

Kato Mitsuyasu M.D., Ph.D.

Figure 1. Interdisciplinary mathematics, data science, and AI education programs of University ofTsukuba.
technology, social engineering, cybernetics,
risk resilience, empowerment informatics, etc.
In collaboration with interdisciplinary experts
in each of these fields who utilize information
technology, we will expand our research andeducation using information technology to allacademic disciplines. Yoshiyuki Sankai (6,7) afounder of Cybernics says “Cybernics is a newacademic field that is to solve human and social
problems which developed countries are facing.
It is a new academic field that is centered aroundhuman, machine, information fused/combinedwith various other fields including brain/neuroscience, behavioral science, robotics,
information technology, artificial intelligence,system engineering, psychology, philosophy,
ethics, low and business administration” (8).

In addition, we will expand this educational
program to all Japan and the rest of the world
through the JV-Campus distance learning
program, for which the university has been
selected as a base school (9).
Excellent researchers and engineers in the
IT field belong not only to universities, butalso to research institutes and companies
in Japan and abroad. University of Tsukuba
has been conducting education and research
activities in cooperation with researchers andengineers outside of the university throughthe Cooperative Graduate School (10) and theCollaborative Graduate School (11, 12). We
will continue to collaborate with domestic andinternational research institutes, companies,

Journal of Southeast Asian Education (Vol. 1 | Special Issue): 95 – 98 (2022)

97

Mathematics, Data Science and AI Education in the University of Tsukuba

and local governments to share data andpromote joint education and research.
Future tasks
The MDA education at the university willconsist of five levels of programs, starting with
the Data Science Literacy Program, which has
already been certified as Literacy Level Plus.
The national government has announced
that it will launch an accreditation system forundergraduate applied basic programs above
literacy this year. Prior to this, our school has
been selected as a cooperating school in thefield of social engineering for the specific fieldof this applied basic level, and we will develop
a program to be accredited for the applied basic
level that will start in the future.
Furthermore, in addition to the doctoral
course top human resource development
program that was adopted as a base school thisyear, we will establish both doctoral and master’scourse expert development programs based on
the university’s track record in interdisciplinary
research and education, which is a characteristicof the university, to develop human resources
who can pioneer new academic fields andpromote innovation in society by making full useof MDA in their respective fields of specialization,and master’s programs to develop humanresources who can use MDA in their respective
fields of specialization to pioneer new academic
fields and promote social innovation.
This year, the University of Tsukuba began
its activities as a designated national universitythat conducts top-level education and researchon par with other top universities around theworld. The University of Tsukuba has the largest

98

and greenest campus in Japan with on campus
housing for over 3,000 students, forming aninternational community with the largest
number of international students of any national
university in Japan, a wide range of research
fields not found at other national universities
including physical education, sports and artsand design, and is located in a super sciencecity within one hour from Tokyo. As the core of
the company, it plays a leading role in Japanese
academia and education, not only in the fields
of mathematics, data science, and AI, but also in
all other fields. As a university that contributes
to the sustainable development of the world,
including the achievement of the SDGs andcarbon neutrality. We expect it to continue todevelop further in the future.
References
https://www.tsukuba.ac.jp/en/
https://yoichiochiai.com/biography/
http://dnobori.cs.tsukuba.ac.jp/en/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oeDPC1zQxlQhttps://maedastudio.com
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yoshiyuki_Sankai
h t t p s : / / w w w. f o r b e s . c o m / p r o fi l e / y o s h i y u k i sankai/?sh=265ae89369f9
https://www.ccr.tsukuba.ac.jp/en/
https://www.jv-campus.org
https://www.tsukuba.ac.jp/en/academics/gcourses-cooperative/
https://t-imi.org/en/
https://tlsi.tsukuba.ac.jp/education_e.html

Journal of Southeast Asian Education (Vol. 1 | Special Issue): 95 – 98 (2022)

Journal of Southeast Asian Education (Vol. 1 | Special Issue): 99 – 107 (2022)

Teacher Education Past and Present:
Addressing Current Challenges for a Better Futurewww.seameo.org

Semantic analysis of a lesson in an online program: A focus on
Japanese Terminology
Masami Isoda1* and Diego Solis Worsfold2
University of Tsukuba, Japan

1,2*Corresponding Author
Masami Isoda
E-mail: isoda@criced.tsukuba.jp
Co-Author(s):Author 2: Diego Solis Worsfold
E-mail:diego.solis2019@gmail.com

ABSTRACTThe objective of this paper is to illustrate how the lessons of an online program
were analysed through a semantic processing method with the purpose to sharethe incorporation of necessary terminology for designing curriculum, textbooks
and lessons in mathematics education. With this aim, a lesson of the online course‘Teaching Mathematics to Develop Mathematical Thinking as Higher Order Thinking:
How do you teach? Why?’ created by CRICED-University of Tsukuba for the SEAMEO
School Network served as an example of the implementation. Recommendations
for future revisions are made such that fundamental mathematical ideas in the
introduction of numbers and operations are included.

Keywords: Online course, terminology, semantic processing, occurrence network

Introduction
As previously explained in Isoda, Solis &Lopez (2021), an online program was developed
through international cooperation for the
SEAMEO School Network as a pilot study withtwo backgrounds: the first one was theimplementation difficulty of the SEA-Teacher
program and the second one was the necessity toshare the terminology for designing curriculum,
textbooks and lessons in mathematics education
as the subject to develop higher order thinking
skills as mathematical thinking. On the previous
paper, the establishment of the project up toevaluation from participants was reported. On
this paper, a description of the implementation
process is provided with the purpose to sharethe incorporation of the necessary terminology.
Firstly, the necessity and principles of the
program are described. Secondly, the welldefined content for practices in designing
the program’s lessons are shown. Thirdly, themethod of analysis to describe the program’s
lessons is explained. Fourthly, the case of
one lesson is used as an example to show thesemantic processing method.

Published by SEAMEO Organization, ISSN 1513-4601 | Editorial Office: SEAMEO Secretariat, 920 Sukhumvit Road, Bangkok, Thailand.
Tel: (+662) 3910144 | Fax: (+662) 3812587 | E-mail: secretariat@seameo.org This article is under CC BY-SA License.

Semantic analysis of a lesson in an online program: A focus on Japanese Terminology

Necessity and principles of the online
program.
Regarding the adaptation of textbooks andthe description of curriculum standards, one
major difficulty has been identified: the lackof terminology which is necessary to design
curricula, textbooks and lessons by themselves(Montecillo, Teh & Isoda, 2018). Suchterminology has been developed by Japaneseteachers and educators for lesson study sincethe 19th century to conceptually distinguish thecontent of individual materials, to describe thetask sequence and learning trajectory in the
instructional system, to indicate what challenges
a task entails, to contribute to design task
sequence and evaluation, to distinguish whichof the children’s ideas that emerge in class are
based on prior learning, to explain which lack ofunderstanding emerged, and to examine whattasks the teacher should plan for and whether
they are appropriate as future learning. The
curriculum standards for each country, even in
the case of Japan, do not include all necessarythese terms because curriculum standards as apart of the law are kept to a minimum numberof words to differentiate the content among
grades. As a result, teachers have usually limited
opportunities to learn and use the necessary
terminology. In the case of Japan, these words
are known as content of mathematics teacher
education.
The online course ‘Teaching Mathematics to
Develop Mathematical Thinking as Higher Order
Thinking: How do you teach? Why?’ was created
for the SEAMEO School Network as a necessary
program to develop mathematical thinking andshare Japanese terminology to design better
curricula, textbooks and lessons. It responds to100

SEAMEO’s priority area No.5, revitalizing teacher
education and priority area No.7, adopting 21st
century curriculum. As a collaboration between
countries’ institutions, the program gathered
invited speakers from the following institutions:
SEAMEO RECSAM (Malaysia), SEAMEO QITEP in
Mathematics (Indonesia), Khon Kaen University(Thailand), Vietnam National University(Vietnam), University of the Philippines(Philippines), Pontificia Universidad Catolica deValparaiso (Chile), and Universidad Pedagogica
Nacional (Mexico). The program was focused on
the introduction of numbers and operations up
to 3rd Grade and was designed as 20 consecutive
pre-recorded lessons which required sequential
participation. Every lesson was developed byprofessor Masami Isoda with the contribution of
the invited speakers from the above mentioned
institutions. Lessons were distributed toparticipants through YouTube Live Streaming.
A full description of the program’s schedule
is available in Isoda (2021). As explained by
Isoda, Solis & Lopez (2021), the program wasdeveloped under four principles:i. Aims of mathematics education: develop
students who learn mathematics forthemselves.
ii. Nature of mathematics curriculum:
mathematization which re-organize themathematical experience, explained byextension and integration and also byconceptualization and proceduralization.
iii. Role of teachers and educators: designersof learning such as in curriculum andtextbook by developing task sequence.
iv. Students as learners: challenge theunknown task by using what they alreadylearned through the past tasks and prepare

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Masami Isoda and Diego Solis Worsfold

the further learning with appropriate
support by teachers.
Designing the lessons: Focusing on the
introduction of numbers and operations
Well-defined content for practices on the
introduction of numbers and operations havebeen described in SEAMEO Basic Education
Standards: Common Core Regional Standards
in Mathematics and Science (SEA-BES:CCRLS)(Mangao, Ahmad, & Isoda, 2017) and training
books (Teh, Isoda, & Gan, 2021). These
content justify both the designed structureand hypothesized key words that compose
the terminology for each lesson in the online
program.

and decomposition. Additionally, sets ofobjects can be compared by “one to one
correspondence and recognize larger,
smaller or equal with appreciation in
drawing paths between objects” (Teh etal., 2021, p.6). Here, a set is defined by an
attribute which requires the definition ofa unit for counting (denomination). Lastly,
the representation in the decimal notation
system is summarized by considering
numbers through units of ten, hundred,and thousand.
(b) Addition is introduced in 1st Grade as abinary operation. The meaning of thisoperation is introduced with “situations(a) Whole numbers are introduced and called“numbers” in 1st Grade until a differentiationis needed in 3rd Grade to separate themfrom decimal numbers and fractions.
Whole numbers are represented by thedecimal notation system and emphasis
is placed to understand the difference ofordinal and cardinal numbers while using
them appropriately in situations (Teh et al.,2021). At this point is important to clarify
that prior to the introduction of addition and(together, combine, and increase) for
addition and explain it with manipulatives
and orally” (Mangao et al, 2017, p.16).
Subtraction is also introduced as a binary
operation and the meaning of this operation
is introduced with various situations
such as left (take away) and difference(comparative). Additionally, subtraction as
the inverse operation of addition is definedin later grades. After the introduction of
the meaning of addition and subtraction asa binary operation, the mental calculationof addition is proceduralized fromcomposition of numbers while subtraction
is proceduralized from decompositionof numbers. Then, for the extension ofoperations with numbers larger thanten, addition as composition of numbers
is integrated with decomposition of
numbers by making sets of ten. Finally,
for the extension with multiple digits in

subtraction, “how many” is operationallydriven by the numerical composition

vertical form, addition as decompositionand composition of numbers is integrated

As a description of the domain’s general
purpose in lower elementary schoolmathematics, the following subsections describe
the larger context of interpretation tied tolearning and teaching opportunities regarding
the introduction of numbers and operations,
the ways of thinking, mathematical values, andmathematical modelling:

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Semantic analysis of a lesson in an online program: A focus on Japanese Terminology

with the base ten system by using block
representation.
(c) The way of thinking, particularly “think
about how to calculate”, is focused on
the composition and decomposition of
numbers and grouping by ten. In later
grades, the calculation in each place value
with multiple digits is extended. The main
goal is “thinking about the easier ways for
addition and subtraction and producing
vertical form with algorithms” (Mangao et
al, 2017, p.18). This involves thinking how
to improve the calculations by learning thecommutative and associative law, carryingup (addend/augend decomposition) andcarrying down (minuend/subtrahend
decomposition).
(d) There are mathematical values that are
expected to be fostered by engaging
in the learning of mathematics such asusefulness, simplicity, generality, efficiency,
reasonableness,andbeautifulness(Mangao et al, 2017). For example, in thecase of whole numbers, the representation
through the decimal notation system byplace value allows an easier and concise
way to compare the magnitude ofnumbers. In the case of problem solving,
analysing from multiple perspectives, thenlooking back on various representations,and finally thinking about new solution
methods.
(e) On mathematical attitudes, “changing
representation to other ways such asmodelling can overcome the running out
of ideas in problem solving” (Mangao
et al, 2017, p.6). For this, mathematicalexpressions, such as the ones involving

102

addition and subtraction, are essential in
the translation of scenes from daily life into
the world of mathematics. This process also
includes using concrete and semi concrete
objects. In this context, a mathematicalmodel is used to idealize everyday events
such that learned concepts and principles
can be used to mathematically solve
problems. During the modelling process,mathematical expressions not only allow
to describe events more accurately, butalso supports flexible communication ofthoughts and ideas.
One of the necessities to develop the teacher
training books by Gan, Isoda & Teh (2021)
and Teh et al. (2021) were that there are nocorresponding and appropriate materials in theofficial or preferable textbooks in some countries
for clear understanding of SEA-BES:CCRLS in
Mathematics and Science. For knowing andunderstanding materials in Mathematics,
we preferred to use Japanese textbooks,
English translation of Gakkotosho publisher,
as for teaching materials because it have been
consistently incorporated these content fordeveloping students who learn mathematics
by and for themselves, make use of what they
have already learned and consider what theyshould do differently, and on these reason it
has adapted in SEAMEO countries and APEC
economies such as Thailand, Indonesia, Papua
New Guinea, Chile and Mexico.
Method of analysis: Semantic processing
As intended by the design of the pre-recorded
lessons, the main lecturer and invited speakers
engaged in discussions that were justified

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Masami Isoda and Diego Solis Worsfold

by the well-defined content for practices in
the introduction of numbers and operations.
Serving as a comparative base to the accepted
discursive components, the repetitive patternsin actions and use of key words and narratives
by the lecturer and speakers composed theenacted routines. By relying on the transcriptionof both the audio and the written expressions
in each pre-recorded lesson, the analysis ofthese enacted routines become the best way
to confirm the implementation of the Japaneseterminology. This enacted routine was themain communication mean that connected thelecturer and speakers with the participants.
Given that the analysis of the pre-recorded
lessons was based on the literal transcriptionof verbal and written expressions composed bylarge amounts of text, a text mining approachcomposed by statistical and computer linguistic
methods was selected to semi-automaticallyextract semantic structures (Wiedemann &Niekler, 2017).
Text mining approach
The selected semantic processing method
for the transcription of the prerecorded lessons
was the analysis by significant co-occurrences.
This means identifying tokens that occur
more frequently per context of analysis (i.e.
paragraphs, sentences, and neighboring words)
than expected by chance. After calculating thestatistical significance of the co-occurrence
among two tokens, the “ranking of globally
most significant word pairs can be used directly
as an indicator for possible idiomatic usage”(Bordag, 2008, p.53). Accordingly, the semantic
environment of the tokens was visualized by cooccurrence networks. These networks depended

on the co-occurrence ranking generated from a
two level analysis: primary co-occurrence andsecondary co-occurrence (Wiedemann & Niekler,2017). Primary co-occurrence is composed by
the 10 most significant co-occurring tokens withthe most frequent term in the transcription;
secondary co-occurrence is composed by the 10
most significant co-occurring tokens with eachof the 10 tokens identified in the primary cooccurrence. As recommended by Bordag (2008),
loglikelihood was used as the statistical measure
for co-occurrence significance.
Analysing one pre-recorded lesson: The caseof Lesson #2
Justified by the well-defined content forpractices, this section describes the designed
structure (including hypothesized key words)
and the enacted routines by the lecturer andspeakers in Lesson #2. The enacted routine isanalysed by making a semantic processing of
the transcription of the pre-recorded lesson.
The idiomatic usage is explained through thesignificant join occurrence of tokens within
the transcription of both verbal and written
expressions. The results from the analysis ofsignificant co-occurrence is summarized throughan occurrence network.
The case of Lesson #2
This lesson was designed to generate a
discussion surrounding the following questions
and topics:
What is necessary for counting activity? The
difference of making sense and sense making.
What shall we do for sense making? Why you
set your task sequence? Why you would like to

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Semantic analysis of a lesson in an online program: A focus on Japanese Terminology

teach such an order? Japanese textbook has theordinal number, number, denominated number,task sequence for using learned and preparation

concrete object, semiconcrete object, the idea

for future learning. Mathematical Thinking as forof set, one to one correspondence, comparison,objective or a framework for research.

zero, permanence of form, Peano axioms, larger

According to the designed structure for Lesson#2, the following list includes the hypothesized
key words that compose the terminology of thelesson:content, mathematical thinking, mathematicalprocess, mathematical activities, mathematicalvalue, mathematical attitude, habits for humancharacter, acquisition, higher order thinking
skills, reflection, appreciation, challenge by
and for themselves, aim, objective, using
learned before, task for preparation, task toapply learned, mathematical idea, set, unit,
compare, generalization, specialization, ten as
one word, ten as two digits, cardinal number,or smaller, general, special, task, sequence,
counting procedure, first object, direction ofcounting, last object, arrangement, beautifulnessof numbers, increase by one, step, what alreadylearned.

After pre-processing the transcriptionof Lesson #2, the analysis only considered
the tokens that occurred at least 5 times.
This resulted in a total of 110 tokens with a
corpus size of 414 sentences. Additionally, thefollowing neighbouring words were identified
as multiword tokens: mathematical thinking,higher order thinking, task sequence, one
correspondence, one-word, concrete object,

Figure 1. Occurrence network Lesson #2: Main token “number”.

104

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Masami Isoda and Diego Solis Worsfold

Table 1. Most frequent tokens in Lesson #2.

Note: aMathematical thinking. bOne one Correspondence.

number three, Arabic numeral, denominatednumber, addition subtraction, using learned,
make sense, sense making. The most frequent
token was “number”, becoming the focus point
for the co-occurrence analysis. The resulting
semantic environment is shown in Figure 1
represented through an occurrence network.
Regarding the semantic processing, theidiomatic usage can be summarized by threemain sections. First, there is a clear differentiation
between the usage of Arabic numerals and theway in which the numerals are read in eachlanguage. Second, the translation activities using
concrete and semi concrete objects require thedefinition of units for counting (denomination).
Third, the teaching sequence of the lesson isdefined as a preparation towards generalization.
For example, beginning the task sequence bydiscussing the one-to-one correspondence
between flowers and bees. These are reasonable
results as for the explanation of content at the
introduction of number.
Discussion
The semantic processing of the pre-recorded
lessons from the online program ‘Teaching
Mathematics to Develop Mathematical Thinking
as Higher Order Thinking: How do you teach?
Why?’ proved the identification of Japaneseterminology described in the well-definedcontent for practices for the introduction of
numbers and operations. On the other hands,
major mathematical ideas such as the “idea ofset” were missing in the occurrence network.
This is particularly significant because, during
the introduction of numbers, the “idea of set”

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Semantic analysis of a lesson in an online program: A focus on Japanese Terminology

is fundamental in thinking about membershipand in the definition of the unit for counting(denomination). Indeed, on Table 1, thetoken “set” was repeatedly used during the
pre-recorded lesson, however the semantic
processing method didn’t show any significant
co-occurrence with other tokens in the analysis.
It is weakness of semantic processing method
because it is not the methodology for semiotic
analysis on interpreters. On the perspective of
semantic processing, it concludes that the ideaof set is still unclear in relation to other words at
Lesson #2.
Conclusion
This paper described the implementation
process of the online program ‘Teaching
Mathematics to Develop Mathematical Thinking
as Higher Order Thinking: How do you teach?
Why?’ created with the objective to sharenecessary terminology for designing curriculum,
textbooks and lessons in mathematics
education. According to the results fromthis pilot study, future analysis will require arevision of the semantic processing method
such that fundamental mathematical ideas in
the introduction of numbers and operations areincluded. We may need the further course to
explain what mathematical thinking in generalis because the previous course more focusedon the terminology to distinguish conceptual
difference and task sequence which arenecessary for designing.

Marcela Santillan (Universidad Pedagogica
Nacional, Mexico).
References
Bordag, S. (2008). A comparison of co-occurrence
and similarity measures as simulations ofcontext. In International conference on
intelligent text processing and computational
linguistics (pp. 52–63).
Gan, T., Isoda, M. & .Teh, K (2021). Mathematics
challenges for classroom practices at theLower Secondary Level: Based on SEAMEO
Basic Education Standards: Common Core
Regional Learning Standards in Mathematics,
Penang, Malaysia: SEAMEO RECSAM.
Isoda, M. (2021). Announcement of the online
program for SEAMEO School Network (freeof charge). (retrieved in April 8, 2022)
https://www.criced.tsukuba.ac.jp/en/pdf/

Acknowledgements

Announcement_for_SEAMEO_School_

This creation of this online program was
supported by JSPS grant No.19H01662. the106

authors deeply acknowledge the following
stakeholders and speakers for their contributions
on this program: Wahyudi & Weerawan
Theeraroungchaisri (SEAMEO Secretariat),
Shah Jahan bin Assanarkutty & Teh Kim Hong
(SEAMEO-RECSAM), Sumardyono & Wahid
Yunianto (SEAMEO QITEP in Mathematics),
Maitree Inprasitha, Narumon Changsri,
Nisakorn Boonsena & Auijit Pattanajak (Khon
Kaen University, Thailand), Nguyen Chi Thanh(Vietnam National University-University of
Education, Hanoi. Vietnam), Aida Yap & Erlina
Ronda (University of the Philippines, Philippines),
Raimundo Olfos & Soledad Estrella (Pontificia
Universidad Católica de Valparaiso, Chile),

Network_from_CRICED-University_of_
Tsukuba_1.pdf

Journal of Southeast Asian Education (Vol. 1 | Special Issue): 99 – 107 (2022)

Masami Isoda and Diego Solis Worsfold

Isoda, M. & Olfos, R. (2021). Teaching Multiplication(SEAMEO). In Shimizu, Y. & Vithal, R. edited.

with Lesson Study: Japanese and Ibero-

ICMI Study 24 Conference Proceedings,

AmericanInternational

School mathematics curriculum reforms:

Mathematics Education. Chirm: Springer.

Challenges, Changes and Opportunities, 539-

DOI. 10.1007/978-3-030-28561-6.

546. Tsukuba, Japan: University of Tsukuba.

Theoriesfor

Isoda, M., Solis, D., & Lopez, L. (2021). Online Program

Teh, K., Isoda, M. & Gan, T. (2021). Mathematics

for Mathematics Teacher Education withchallenges for classroom practices at theInternational Collaboration: Challenges ofLower Primary Level: Based on SEAMEO

Teacher Education for New Normal. Journal

Basic Education Standards: Common Coreof Southeast Asian Education, (1), 35-44.

Regional Learning Standards in Mathematics,

Mangao, D.D, Ahmad, J, & Isoda, M. (2017). SEAMEO
Basic

Education

Standards

Penang, Malaysia: SEAMEO RECSAM.

(SEA-BES):

Wiedemann, G. & Niekler, A. (2017). Handson: A

Common Core Regional Learning Standards

five day Text Mining course for Humanists(CCRLS) in Mathematics and Science.

and Social Scientists in R. In P. Bockwinkel,

Penang, Malaysia: SEAMEO RECSAM.

T. Declerck, S. Kübler & H. Zinsmeister (Eds.),

Montecillo, P., Teh, K. & Isoda, M. (2018). Challenges
in the development of regional mathematics
curriculum standards: The case of Southeast

Proceedings of the Workshop on Teaching
NLP for Digital Humanities (Teach4DH2017)(pp. 57–65). Berlin, Germany: CEURWS

Asia Ministers of Education Organization

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Journal of Southeast Asian Education (Vol. 1 | Special Issue): 108 – 117 (2022)

Teacher Education Past and Present:
Addressing Current Challenges for a Better Futurewww.seameo.org

Past and future of teacher education in Japan: Considering the modalityof practical experiences during the COVID-19 pandemic
Asakura Masashi, Ph.D.*
Division of Education, University of Tsukuba, Japan*Corresponding Author
Asakura Masashi, Ph.D.
E-mail:asakura@human.tsukuba.ac.jp

ABSTRACT
Teachers in Japan have regularly conducted lesson study with both colleagues intheir schools and teachers from other schools. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic,
these training opportunities have been reduced. Information exchange activities forgroups that researched and discussed teaching methods have also stagnated.
In Japan, the pandemic has forced us to rethink the essential meaning of teachingpracticum and in-service training. The COVID-19 disaster has also revealed thestagnation in the use of ICT (Information and Communication Technology) devices
in Japanese school education. International comparisons has made this a hot topic
in Japan since ICT devices were recognized as a major issue in ensuring children’s
learning during school closures. In response to this, Japan decided to make subjects
related to ICT use a compulsory part of the teacher training course. However, simply
promoting teachers’ use of ICT equipment without examining why Japan lags behind
other countries in its usage and identifying the challenges in introducing new tools
into school education will not be enough to achieve learning outcomes for children.
In this paper, we discuss how to develop the new skills that teachers require to use
technology, while taking over the existing teacher training and in-service teacher
training.

Keywords: In-service training, teaching practicum, Japanese education, ICT devices

Introduction
Teacher education in Japan has emphasized
the importance of “practice” for a number ofyears. This has been embodied in the teachingpracticum and in-service training in particularlesson studies in the schools. However, the

COVID-19 pandemic made it difficult to create
practical training opportunities where face-toface communication was required. In the earlydays of the pandemic, this difficulty was a major
issue for teacher training institutions at all levels.

Published by SEAMEO Organization, ISSN 1513-4601 | Editorial Office: SEAMEO Secretariat, 920 Sukhumvit Road, Bangkok, Thailand.
Tel: (+662) 3910144 | Fax: (+662) 3812587 | E-mail: secretariat@seameo.org This article is under CC BY-SA License.

Asakura Masashi, Ph.D.

The Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports,
Science and Technology (MEXT) has taken
measures to set a flexible duration for theteaching practicum, but it is still unclear how
the shortened duration will change the outcomeof teaching practice. As of this writing, Japanis facing the sixth wave of the pandemic, and
it is difficult to plan the duration of practicaltraining because it is largely dependent on the
spread of infectious diseases. In recent years,
both universities and local boards of education
have attempted to provide practical experience
as practicum training to students who want tobecome teachers, but these efforts will come toa halt under the pandemic.
First, this paper describes the structure ofteacher education in Japan and its emphasis onpractical experience, particularly educational
practicum. It then considers the impact of the
COVID-19 pandemic on teacher education in
Japan, focusing on the limitations of educational
self-study, and points out that the use andapplication of ICT devices is being sought asa new practical experience. Based on these
considerations, we will discuss the future ofteacher education in Japan.
The structure of teacher education in JapanThe concept and framework of “teacher
education” originated from the growinginternational common understanding of theprofessionalism of teachers raised by the ILO/
UNESCO Recommendation concerning the
Status of Teachers (1966). In 1974, as part of
the OECD Expert Meeting on Teacher Policy in
1974, “New Patterns of Teacher Education, andTasks” was published. This paper included anumber of recommendations on “continuity andthe discussion on progressive stage in training”.
With the 1975 UNESCO “The Changing Roleof the Teacher: International Perspectives”, aframework for teacher education was conceived
that consisted of teacher training, recruitment,
and training.
The long-term perspective on improving thequalifications of teachers was influenced by
the development of lifelong education conceptthat emerged in the late 1960s was reflected in
the 1971 OECD report “Training, recruitment
and utilization of teachers in Primary andSecondary Education”. Discussion about theframework of teacher education as a step-bystep and continuous process and how it related
to lifelong education began with “The James
Report: Teacher education and training” by
the British Council on Educational Relations in
1972. The gradual and sequential concept of“personal education”, “preservice education”,“induction”, and “in-service education” had amajor impact on subsequent teacher education
reform and teacher research (The Study Groupon Contemporary Teaching, 1989, p.5).
In Japan, the importance of improving thequality and ability of teachers through theprocess of training, recruitment, and training
was shown in the 1978 Central Council for
Education Report “On the Improvement of
Teachers’ Qualities and Abilities”. The concept oflifelong learning is also important in Japan, andthis perspective continues to influence the way
teacher education is conducted in Japan today.
Figure 1 shows the structure of teacher
education in Japan. Education is divided into threephases: pre-service, teacher recruitment, and in-

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Past and future of teacher education in Japan: Considering the modality of practical experiences during the COVID-19 pandemic

Figure 1. Teacher education system in Japan.
service teacher education. In Japan, a teacher’slicense is awarded by the local government
based on the degree and credits earned in theteacher training curriculum. Teacher recruitment
examinations are conducted by each local
government. After entering the vocation, inservice teachers participate in a year of initialtraining as well as other training programs.
How practical experience has increased andbeing practical has become more important
When obtaining a license to teachkindergarten, elementary school, or junior highschool, prospective teachers are required tocomplete about 150 hours of teaching practicum,
and about 90 hours are required for high school
teachers. The actual length of time students
spend in school is generally three or four weeks
in each school. Universities must coordinate thetiming and duration of teaching practicum with110

local boards of education and individual schoolsthat accept students. Many universities offer
teaching practicum from the third year throughthe summer of the fourth year.
In fact, the number of hours of teachingpracticum required in Japan has gradually
increased. In the 1980s, student delinquency,
violence, and bullying became major problems
throughout Japan. The term “practical ability”
was frequently used to train teachers how todeal with these issues. In 1989, the initial teacher
training program, which is mandatory for teachers
who have passed the teacher employment
examination and have been appointed to theirpositions, was institutionalized. The number ofrequired hours of teaching practice was also
increased as follows.
1. In 1954, kindergarten & elementary school:
120 hours; junior high school, high school:
60 hours.

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Asakura Masashi, Ph.D.

2. In 1989, kindergarten & elementary school:
150 hours; junior high school, high school:
90 hours.
3. In 1998, kindergarten, elementary school &junior high school: 150 hours; high school:
90 hours.
In the last decade, a compulsory course
called “Practical Teaching Seminar” has been
introduced in Japanese teacher training
programs. Thus, the emphasis in Japan is onpractical application of skills.
Table 1 shows the objectives, contents, andmethods of the Practical Teaching Seminar.
Methods of the seminar involving practical

National response to COVID-19 infections,especially in teaching practicum andpromotion of ICT device usage
However, during the pandemic, it is naturally
not possible to secure enough time for teachingpracticum. After March 2020, when the schools
were closed, MEXT issued three notices
regarding the implementation of teachingpracticum in teacher training programs. Figure
3 shows the measures taken by MEXT regarding
changes in educational training in response to
COVID-19 spread.
First, MEXT published the “Regarding theflexible implementation period of educational

experience such as role-playing, group
discussions, practical skills, fieldwork, andmock classes. The course is generally taken in
the fourth year (7-8 semesters), and creatinga “course record” to document what has beenlearned throughout the training program is alegal requirement.

practicum (Notice)” on May 1, 2020. This
document stated that no more than one-thirdof classes could be conducted on-campus during
fiscal year 2020. However, this direction was
limited to cases where educational effects could
be demonstrated as equivalent to previous
educational practices.

Figure 2 shows an example of a “course record.”
Student teachers must complete a course sheet
for all courses taken on the student’s personal
page. For all courses taken, students complete
the chart by writing comments in the box.

Second, MEXT published the “Partial Revisionof the Ordinance for Enforcement of the School
Personnel Licensing Act, etc. (Notice)” on
August 11, 2020. This notice stated that credits
from subjects other than educational practiceTable 1. Objectives, Contents, and Methods of the Practical Teaching Seminar

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Past and future of teacher education in Japan: Considering the modality of practical experiences during the COVID-19 pandemic

Figure 2. Example of a “course record”.

Figure 3. COVID-19 infections per day in Japan and measures concerning educational practicum.
could be used in lieu of educational practicum,
if necessary when it was not possible to conductclasses for the practice subject. However, since
the course is a subject of educational practicum,
it should be conducted as practical training andexercises enable students to comprehensively
understand the actual situation of school
education through experience.

112

Third, MEXT published the “Partial Revisionof the Ordinance for Enforcement of the
School Personnel Licensing Act, etc. (Notice)”on April 1, 2021. MEXT also stated that theabove exceptions would be extended for the
fiscal year 2021. The teaching practicum could
then be replaced by mock classes, university
exercises, and volunteer activities at schools,

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Asakura Masashi, Ph.D.

Figure 4. Average length of time digital devices are used during classroom lessons in a week
(Adapted from National Institute for Educational Policy Research, Ministry of Education, Culture,
Sports, Science and Technology (2019) Key Features of OECD PISA 2018, p.10).
making it possible for students to obtaina teaching license without completing theteaching practice.
The COVID-19 pandemic in Japan has
revealed another major problem related topre-service and in-service teacher training.
Figures 4 and 5 show the results of PISA 2018
by the OECD, which indicate a lag in the use of
ICT equipment in Japan. Students in Japan use
digital devices in schools for the shortest periodof time (Figure 4) in OECD countries. In addition,
about 80% of students who responded “I don’t
have time,” which was the highest among OECDmember countries. A survey conducted by the
MEXT in April 2020 about home learning during
the temporary holidays showed that 1) 24%
of students learned through TV broadcasts, 2)
10% of students learned at home using classvideos created by the board of education, 3)
29% of students learned at home using otherdigital textbooks and digital teaching materials,
and 4) 5% of students learned at home throughsimultaneous interactive online instruction.
In the TALIS 2018 (OECD, 2019), Japaneseteachers had the highest percentage of needs
for professional development in “ICT skills forteaching” among participating countries. Japan
also saw the highest value of growth from the2013 survey to the 2018 survey among theparticipating countries.
Students’ use of digital devices for homeworkand other learning is clearly lower than in otherOECD countries. On the other hand, a highpercentage of students use digital devices forchatting and online games (Figure 5).
MEXT stated that courses about using ICT
devices would become compulsory in preservice teacher education on August 4, 2021
(Figure. 6); in April 2022, MEXT decided tomake “Theories and Methods of Educational
Using ICT” a compulsory subject. Students who
aspire to become teachers will learn how toeffectively use devices to teach various subjects,
how to create digital teaching materials, how
to implement distance education, and how toteach students to develop morals when handlingthe devices.

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Past and future of teacher education in Japan: Considering the modality of practical experiences during the COVID-19 pandemic

Figure 5. Use of digital devices outside of school during weekdays (Adapted from National Institutefor Educational Policy Research, Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology(2019) Key Features of OECD PISA 2018, p.10).

Figure 6. COVID-19 infections per day in Japan and making courses on the use of ICT devices compulsory in teacher training.

114

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Asakura Masashi, Ph.D.

Future of teaching practicum and being
practical: Trigger a reflection and improvement
The future of teacher education curriculum
emphasizing practical experience
In Japan, the teacher training programcurriculum has changed since 1980’s to ensurethat teachers got as much field experience aspossible. However, the COVID-19 pandemic has
reduced the amount of practical experiencethat can be achieved in the teacher training
curriculum. On the other hand, there will be
more learning opportunities regarding theuse of ICT devices, but this is not the same aspractical experience in the school setting. The
question that needs to be considered here is
how much experience in an educational setting
is necessary.
Although the duration of the teachingpracticum in Japan is shorter than in othercountries, research has shown that the pressure,anxiety, and hardships for student teachers are
greater than in other countries because of the
program (Iwata, 2021). This is because student
teachers are more concerned than necessary
about their appearance and attitude towards thementor teachers. The reduction in the numberof hours of teaching practicum may lead us toreflect on the content of teaching practicum wehave accumulated so far, and to consider whatpractical experience is really necessary.
Inpost-pandemic
education,anunprecedented approach is needed to ensure
the competence of teachers who have noclassroom teaching experience. Being treated asa full-fledged teacher and expert as soon as one
becomes a teacher is a major characteristic notfound in other professions (cf. Lortie, 1975). For

example, in Japanese schools, it often happensthat even first-term teachers have to performthe same duties as veteran teachers. This is why
teacher training is expected to provide practicalexperience and to be immediately effective
upon entering the workforce. The emphasis
on practical experience has shaped the cultureof teaching in Japan. Perhaps this professional
culture needs to be changed.
In Japan, The Study Group on Contemporary
Teaching (1989), which pioneered and empiricallyexamined the continuity of teacher education in
the 1980s, approached this topic by considering
the institutions and systems involved in teacher
education, which was an exact opposite to what
had been done previously. In other words, “Whatshould be taken into account when considering
the continuity of teacher education is that itis the student and teacher as the recipients ofeducation, not the givers of education, who arein subjective continuity and unity” (p. 356).
The structure of teacher education presented
at the beginning of this paper is a system inwhich pre-training, recruitment, and in-service
training are separated in stages. However, theconnection between each of these stages has
not been well considered, creating a reality
shock for prospective teaching students. The
educational practicum was positioned as anopportunity for teacher education designed
to link these different stages, but during the
COVID-19 pandemic, these opportunities
have been difficult to acquire. Therefore, we
consider it necessary to reconstruct a systemthat ensures continuity between and among thestages. In other words, another phase between
pre-service and in-service teacher education
should be created, as well as opportunities for

Journal of Southeast Asian Education (Vol. 1 | Special Issue): 108 – 117 (2022)

115

Past and future of teacher education in Japan: Considering the modality of practical experiences during the COVID-19 pandemic

universities, schools, parents, and educational
administration to work together to ensure thecompetence of in-service teachers.
The future of using ICT devices in Japan
Finally, we would like to consider the future ofusing ICT devices in Japan. In a survey conductedby the MEXT (2020) in April 2020 on homelearning during extra school vacations, 1) 24%
of students used TV broadcasting for learning,2) 10% used class videos created independently
by boards of education, 3) 29% used otherdigital textbooks or digital teaching materials,
and 4) only 5% used simultaneous interactive
learning materials for online instruction. This
circumstance led to a nationwide “delay” inonline instruction in school education throughvarious media at the time.
However, a survey conducted in June of
the same year by the Ministry of Education,
Culture, Sports, Science and Technology showedthat the percentages in these categories
quickly increased, to 1) 38%, 2) 26%, 3) 40%,
and 4) 15%. The most recent similar survey,
conducted in September 2021 in response to
the nationwide extension of summer vacation,
showed 1) 7.2%, 2) 17.8%, 3) 30.5%, and 4)
31.2%, clearly indicating the widespread use of
ICT for instruction. In particular, the percentage
of simultaneous interactive online instruction
has increased significantly. As a result, thepercentage of “home study using textbooks
and paper materials” decreased from 100% in
the two surveys conducted in 2020 to 68.8% in
September 2021.
With the introduction of a compulsory courseon the use of ICT devices, the number of practical116

experiences using ICT will increase in the future.
Prospective teachers improve their teachingskills by gaining experience in using ICT devices
in mock lesson and teaching practice conducted
at universities (Morishita et al., 2018; Terashima
et al., 2016). The paper also points out thatstudents’ anxiety about operating the devices is
a disincentive (cf. Morisihita et al., 2018).
Compared to the past, students should have
many more opportunities to use digital devices
in their daily lives. But, students’ anxiety about
operating the devices is a disincentive for using
devices. The quality of their use in educational
activities is considered to be completely
different. Practical experience may not mean
actual use experience. In addition to gaining
experience, we need to consider the trainingof teachers while considering what uses ICT
devices have.
References
Iwata, Y. (ed) (2021) “The Structure of Teaching
Practicum: Comparison with other East
Asian regions.” Gakubunsha. (In Japanese)
Lortie, D. (1975) Schoolteacher: A Sociological Study.
University of Chicago Press: Chicago.
MEXT (2020) Status of Efforts for Study Guidance,
etc. in Public Schools Related to Temporary
School Closure for Countermeasures against
Covid-19 Infections (as of April 16, 2020).
MEXT (2021) Status of Efforts for Study Guidance,
etc. in Public Schools Related to Temporary
School Closure for Countermeasures against
Covid-19 Infections (as of June 23, 2021).
Morishita, T. et al. (2018) Effect of Requiring ICT
Use in Teaching Practice on Teacher Trainee

Journal of Southeast Asian Education (Vol. 1 | Special Issue): 108 – 117 (2022)

Asakura Masashi, Ph.D.

Knowledge and Skills with ICT. Japan Journal

Terashima, K., Koshimizu, T. and Fujiyama, A. (2016)of Educational Technology, Volume 42 Issue

An Analysis on “The Skills of ICT Use in

1 pp. 105-114. (In Japanese)

Education” of Pre-Service Teachers ThroughNational Institute for Educational Policy Research,
Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports,
Science and Technology (2019) Key Featuresof OECD PISA2018, p.10, https://www.nier.
go.jp/kokusai/pisa/pdf/2018/01_point-eng.
pdf (accessed 2022-2-7).
OECD (2019) The OECD Teaching and Learning

the Micro-Teaching in the Lectures Involving
Subject Teaching Method. Japanese Journalof Educational Media Research, Volume 22
Issue 2 pp. 21-31.
The Study Group on Contemporary Teaching (1989)
The Study on the Continuity of Teacher
Education. Taga-shuppan. (In Japanese)

International Survey 2018 Result.

Journal of Southeast Asian Education (Vol. 1 | Special Issue): 108 – 117 (2022)

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Journal of Southeast Asian Education (Vol. 1 | Special Issue): 118 – 123 (2022)

Teacher Education Past and Present:
Addressing Current Challenges for a Better Futurewww.seameo.org

All-Japan International Online Education Platform: The Case of the
JV-Campus
Ohniwa Ryosuke*
JV-Campus, University of Tsukuba, Tsukuba, Japan*Corresponding Author
Ohniwa Ryosuke
E-mail: ohniwa@md.tsukuba.ac.jp

ABSTRACT
Scheduled for launch in March 2022, JV-Campus is a new all-Japan international
online education platform commissioned by the Ministry of Education, Culture,
Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT) of Japan in April 2021 as part of the Top
Global University Project in the new normal. As a countermeasure to situations
such as the COVID-19 pandemic which severely impacted the physical mobility ofpeople resulting in the drastic decrease in both inbound and outbound student
numbers, the JV-Campus project was conceptualized by MEXT with its headquarters
at the University of Tsukuba in May 2021. As its vision statement, JV-Campus
aims to “evolve learners and organizations, by weaving and circulating wisdom
together”. Hence, we are constructing a full-spec MOOC using the Moodle LMS,
and we will offer two services, namely (1) Individual Box for each institution offering
educational contents that are self-managed by each institution, and (2) Strategic
Package Box offering package contents to institutions for use in their educational
programs. We launched a pilot service on March 10, 2022. As of April 2022, 39
Japanese institutions open the Individual Box, while 71 institutions are offeringcontents in the study in Japan Special Box. We also welcome participation fromoverseas institutions.

Keywords: international project, JV-Campus, interdisciplinary education

Introduction
The COVID-19 pandemic impacted thephysical mobility all around the globe. This
also included students’ mobility in Japan. As
shown in Figure 1, both inbound and outboundnumbers of students dramatically decreased
after the emergence of COVID-19. Under suchconditions, the Ministry of Education, Culture,
Sports, Science, and Technology (MEXT) createda new project in April 2021 called “Japan Virtual
Campus (JV-Campus)”, which is an online
education platform to support or complement
our international educational activities.

Published by SEAMEO Organization, ISSN 1513-4601 | Editorial Office: SEAMEO Secretariat, 920 Sukhumvit Road, Bangkok, Thailand.
Tel: (+662) 3910144 | Fax: (+662) 3812587 | E-mail: secretariat@seameo.org This article is under CC BY-SA License.

Ohniwa Ryosuke

Figure 1. Inbound and outbound students from Japan.2,3
JV-Campus is a main project in Japan Forumfor Internationalization of Universities (JFIU),
which was established on September 2021 as
the consortium of Japanese universities with thegoal of creating an environment for strengthening
cooperation in, and horizontal developmentof, diverse achievements among a group of
universities leading internationalization, as
well as further strengthening the international
compatibility and competitiveness of higher

education toward new normal era.1 The activityof JFIU is mainly supported by a top global
university project offered by MEXT.
At present, many Japanese universities andinstitutions need online education platform,
both for using the online education platformin their curriculum, as well as for offering the
educational content to other universities (Figure2A). In such situation, the University of Tsukuba

Journal of Southeast Asian Education (Vol. 1 | Special Issue): 118 – 123 (2022)

119All-Japan International Online Education Platform: The Case of the JV-Campus

Figure 2. JV-Campus project. (A) Needs and (B). Proposed scheme by University ofTsukuba).
applied for the project with our previous successin online education systems such as Course
Jukebox (Course Jukebox (CJ) is a system where
the University of Tsukuba and oversea strategic
partner universities provide and share lessons
and courses.)4 and All Japan e-learning cloudfor cancer professional multidiscipline,5 and the
proposal shown in Figure 2B was approved in
May 2021.

correspondence of the contents offering andusing in liberal arts, language education, licensequalification education, data science education.
It is expected that JV-Campus will play a role tolink the offering and using. Also, many Japanese
universities expect the online education
platform to contribute to inbound and outboundstudents, such that JV-Campus can be a portalof Japanese higher education for both domestic
and overseas users.

Expectations of the Program
To establish JV-Campus, we first conducted
the questionnaire survey and online interviews
to grasp the needs on JV-Campus from August2021 to September 2022 (Figure 3) and foundhigh needs in both contents offering andusing in Japanese universities, particularly,

120

Proposed Structure
As business, the core value proposition of JVCampus is the participation of many Japaneseinstitutions in single initiative of MEXT. There,
the University of Tsukuba will offer the value ofthe new online education together with other

Journal of Southeast Asian Education (Vol. 1 | Special Issue): 118 – 123 (2022)

Ohniwa Ryosuke

Figure 3. Needs assessment.

Figure 4. Proposed business model
Journal of Southeast Asian Education (Vol. 1 | Special Issue): 118 – 123 (2022)

121All-Japan International Online Education Platform: The Case of the JV-Campus

Japanese universities. Hence, we set the visionof JV-Campus as following: JV-Campus will
involve learners and organizations by weaving
and circulating wisdom together. We also set
the two missions of JV-Campus: (i) JV-Campus
will empower each institution by enablingthem to create, share, and utilize courseware
packages that will support them in achieving
their strategic objectives, and (ii) JV-Campus will
empower you by offering a unique platform forlearning and creating courses.
Next, we set the business model scheme
to achieve our vison and mission (Figure 3).
In this scheme, first, each institution needs tojoin in JV-Campus. Then JV-Campus will offer
two main services to each institution. One is
Individual Box, where we offer the LMS/MOOC
system constructed by the Moodle6 to each
institution. Each can offer its unique contents
according to the education management
strategy of the institution, and can deliver thecontents to variety of users. The second service
is Strategic Package Box, which is a quite
unique service from JV-Campus. There, wecreate educational content packages together
with members of JFIU and offer the packages
to the user institutions with JV-Campus brand.
We will create this strategic package box onneeds base. Our core value proposition enables
this service, which is hardly found in otherworldwide online education platforms such as
COUSERA7 and edeX.8
As first case of Strategic Package box, wetargeted Japanese language education to
overseas students. Now, it is under construction
with the initiative of Tokyo University of Foreign
Studies, a JFIU managing member.
In addition, we offer the special boxes
corresponding to the emerging needs. For
example, we now have a special box, Study inJapan Special Box, to support overseas students
who cannot come to Japan due to COVID-19
pandemic. There, JV-Campus offers 250
contents provided by 71 Japanese institutions(as of April 13, 2022). The students can enjoy thestudy contents related to “Japan and Japanese
Universities,” “Special courses from Japanese
universities,” “Communication program,” andFigure 5. JV-Campus top page; https://www.jv-campus.org/en/.

122

Journal of Southeast Asian Education (Vol. 1 | Special Issue): 118 – 123 (2022)

Ohniwa Ryosuke“Messages from students in Japan”. Anotherexample is to advertise university fair to recruit
students. Osaka University, a JFIU managing
member, organized All-Japan university
fair in March 2022, and we supported theadvertisement to show the banner on the JVCampus top page.
For content providers, we offer two options
to utilize JV-Campus. One is to use this platform
as a MOOC/LMS system, and the other is touse just portal site function. Many institutions
have established their own MOOC/LMS intheir campus and may not need to offer online
education contents. Such institutions can use
JV-Campus as the portal site showing only
introductive information and web links totheir own MOOC/LMS, and offer the contentsfrom their websites. We believe for even suchinstitutions our portal service enhances thevisibility and accessibility to their contents.

regulations to participate JV-Campus are shownat the bottom of JV-Campus top page (https://www.jv-campus.org/en/). Your participationand collaboration is highly welcomed.
Notes
1. Japan Forum for Internationalization of
Universities (JFIU); https://www.jfiu.jp/en/
2. MEXT,“「外国人留学生在籍状況調
査」及び「日本人の海外留学者数」等について”;
chrome-extension://efaidnbmnnnibpcajpcglclefindmkaj/viewer.
html?pdfurl=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.
mext.go.jp%2Fcontent%2F20220330_

We expect corporations and overseas
institutions to join in JV-Campus to offer
online education contents, and we will start
the recruitment this year. We also seek theopportunity to collaborate with other online

mxt_gakushi02-1412692-01.
pdf&clen=644337&chunk=true
3. JAOS,“日本人留学生数は前年24%とコロナ影響により激減。業界団体
JAOSは留学支援指針を策定し、潜在留学層を支援。”;
chrome-extension://efaidnbmnnnibpcajpcglclefindmkaj/viewer.
html?pdfurl=https://www.jaos.or.jp/wpcontent/uploads/2021/06/2021JAOS/
E7/95/99/E5/AD/A6/E7/94/9F/E7/B5/B1/
E8/A8/88/E8/AA/BF/E6/9F/BB/E3/81/A8/
E7/95/99/E5/AD/A6/E6/94/AF/E6/8F/B4/
E6/8C/87/E9/87/9D/E3/83/AA/E3/83/AA/
E3/83/BC/E3/82/B9210604.pdf&chunk=true
4. Course Jukebox; https://cj.tsukuba.ac.jp/
5. All Japan e-learning cloud for cancer
professional
multidiscipline;
http://
ganpro-z.jp/e-learning.shtml
6. Moodle; https://moodle.org/?lang=ja
7. COURSERA; https://www.coursera.org/
8. edeX; https://www.edx.org/

education platforms such as J-Mooc.9 The

9. J-Mooc; https://www.jmooc.jp/

Pilot Business Start on March 10, 2022
We launched Individual Box service on
March 10, 2022. As of April 13, 2022 (Figure 4),
39 Japanese institutions opened the boxes andgradually started to offer content (https://www.
jv-campus.org/en/).
Next Steps

Journal of Southeast Asian Education (Vol. 1 | Special Issue): 118 – 123 (2022)

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