A study of students’ perceptions of English teacher pedagogical competence

Article history: Received 11 April 2020 Revised 18 July 2020 Accepted 19 July 2020 Available online 31 July 2020 This study attempts to identify students’ perception of English teacher pedagogical competence at MAN 1 Malang, Indonesia. It can be categorized into qualitative research design since this study try to find out English teacher pedagogical competence based on students point of view. Eighty-seven students from five classes were involved in this study. The data were collected using questionnaires to know students’ perception on their teacher pedagogical competence. The questionnaire adopted from Brown (2007), Kourieous and Evripidou (2013), and Akhyak, Idrus, Bakar (2013) will be used in this study. The result of study showed that students’ perception of teacher pedagogical are higher in two variables; providing classroom activity and assessment. Meanwhile, teacher needs to increase four others variable of pedagogical competence because teacher pedagogical competence is the most importance competence than the other competence. By improving quality continuously, teacher will mold students to get success and increase quality of Education in Indonesia thoroughly.


Introduction
Several studies were conducted to investigate factors influencing students' academic success. Lim & Morris (2009) found that learner, instructional, and motivational variables correlated on students' learning outcomes. Meanwhile, Hattie (2012) identified six areas that assist to learning: students, school, curricula, teacher, home, and approaches in teaching and learning. Learners variable is chosen as the focus of the study because Hattie (2003) states that students are the greatest source of variance (50 %) which influences the students' achievement, then it is followed by teachers' variance (30 %).
No doubt, one of the factors that determine students' successfulness in learning is influenced by the teacher. Many researchers regard that the teacher as a dominant and key factor to optimize education processes (Adegbola & Depar, 2019;Hakim, 2015;Marinković, Bjekić, & Zlatić, 2012). It means that the teacher plays decisive roles whether education succeed or not. Teacher's quality depends on teacher's knowledge about his field and its implementation in the classroom and how to transform knowledge to students. The teacher not only transfers the knowledge to students but also becomes the educator that guides students to be competent, active, creative and independent by giving them instruction. Hence becoming a teacher is not easy.
The teachers should have competencies as a teacher. In Indonesia, the Law No 19/2005 regulates that, a teacher should have four competencies: professional, personality, pedagogical, and social competence. By having those competences, it is hoped increasing the quality of education. Among those competencies, pedagogical competency is important components to run teachers' work effectively. It is supported by Fauth et al., (2019) who found that by having competence especially pedagogical competence, it greatly influence students interest in learning and culminate with increasing students achievement.
Pedagogical competence means as teaching and learning management competency which cover discerning the students, making teaching planning and implementing it in the classroom, doing evaluation, and developing students' potential. This competence constitutes the key to efficient education because it is close connection with three essential education factors: efficiency and achievement, teachers' professional development and societal change (Irina, 2011). Haenilah (2013) adds that in pedagogical competence there are three important points; first, it is the gist among the others competences of teachers; then, it results in an attempt to set up suitable condition for students to actualize themselves in knowledge comprehension, skills, or behavioral building; finally, its value is highly effected by academic, social, and personal skills as the requisite for constructing pedagogical competence. Therefore, pedagogical competence is necessary to be possessed by teachers so that they can help the students to achieve the aim of education.
Teacher has a big responsibility in learning process. Teachers' pedagogical competence includes knowing the learners, designing instruction and then implementing it, evaluating learning outcomes, and developing learners to embrace their potential (National Standards of Education in the Law No. 19/2005). Pedagogical competence is explained more detail in National Education Ministry Regulation No 16, 2007, which is stated that pedagogical competence covers: first, understanding students characteristics, involving recognition on students' biological, social, psychological and cognitive development, such as students interaction either among them or with teachers, motivation learning, students problems on behavior, motivation and difficulties of learning; second, understanding learning concept and learning principles; third, developing curriculum related with the course, which is a path chosen by the teacher to lead the whole semester. In addition, Panda (2012) insists pedagogical competency as teachers' competence to powerfully implement their knowledge, skills, attitude by selecting appropriate strategy for students' need. This competence will direct teachers to apply everything what he/she know related to his/her field.
Related to teacher's preparation, teacher should well prepare and well organize in class. Prior studies explained Task-Based Language Teaching methods (Prasetyaningrum, 2018) and pre-reading strategies (Lailiyah, Wediyantoro, & Yustisia, 2019) successfully increased students' contribution in teaching and learning. Other, the use of teaching media, such as animation movie (as in Wediyantoro, 2016), Big Books (as in Febrianti, 2019) and video (as in Lutviana & Mafulah, 2018), are successfully grab students' attention. In addition, one study argues that engaging students in literary might encourage students' interaction (Putra, 2016).
Furthermore, Akhyak, Idrus, & Abu Bakar (2013) comprise pedagogical competence into three competences: competency in teaching plan, teaching and learning process, and competency in assessment and evaluation. Having competence in planning and designing teaching reinforce teacher competence dealing with ability of explaining objective, choosing and arranging materials, deciding methods and strategies of learning, deciding source of learning, media, tools, and time allocation. Meanwhile, competence in teaching and learning process comprises teachers' ability in opening lesson, conveying materials, using teaching method and media, using communicative language, encouraging students, having well activities preparation in the classroom, interactive by concluding lessons, providing feedback, conducting assessment and evaluation, and using time effectively. The last is Learning and Teaching Assessment and Evaluation Competency. The teacher empowerment in terms of this competency turned out to directed to the ability of: choosing questions based on the level of difficulty; selecting questions based on the level of differentiation; repairing the problem is not valid; checking the answer; classifying the results of the assessment; processing and analyzing assessment results; making interpretation of the trend assessment results; determining the correlation problem based on the assessment results; assessing to determine variation result level; inferring from assessment results clearly and logically; arranging the next program should be done from assessment results; classifying students; identifying the need for follow-up assessment results; carrying out follow-up; evaluating the results of follow-up; and analyzing the results of evaluation. Mâţă, Cmeciu, & Ghiaţău (2013) divide the component of cognitive knowledge in three components; cognitive (apprehension and interpretation); behavior (strategies and expertness); attitude (value). Dealing with the first and second components, techniques and methods of teaching is the most crucial to be concerned by the teacher from students' perspective. Meanwhile, the third component, evaluation is the most regarded as part of attitude component. From the statement above, the indicators that will be used to assess teachers' pedagogical competence is adopted from Brown (2007), Kourieos & Evripidou (2013), and Akhyak et al. (2013) because their statement is in accordance with the Law and easy to be understood.
The variable of this study is students' perception toward teachers' competency. Students' perception toward their teachers' competence affect students' achievement (Hallinan, 2008). He asserts that students who have positive perception toward their teacher (realize teachers careness, respect and praise on them) perform more success in academic achievement.
In addition, Montalvo, Mansfield, & Miller (2007) found that the students' like and dislike for a teacher is not only related to students' academic achievement but also students' motivation. The good teacher is focus on learning in constructing a classroom, providing effective feedback, and stimulating perseverance in challenging work; these characteristics will raise student achievement. It deals with Zimmerman, Khoury, Vega, Gil, & Warheit (1995) finding that students' learning motivation, endeavour, and performance depend much on students' belief on teacher's support, interest, and teacher's respect. The previous studies indicate that if the students have positive perception toward teachers' competence, they will have enthusiasm and focus in learning activities. On the other hand, if the students have negative perception toward teachers' competence, they will not study seriously because they do not have interest, motivation and loss teacher role as role model. Besides, probably negative attitudes will arise such as rambunctious and truant from the school. The worrying condition is that students will not respect their teacher. If this condition happens, it is impossible improving education quality and most of the students will fail in their study.
There are many research done related with the importance of pedagogical competence. A study differ senior and junior teacher in term of pedagogical competence (Emiliasari, 2018). In its finding, it reveals that junior teacher is better in utilizing Information and Communication Technology (ICT) and envolving teaching media in teaching and learning process. Senior teacher is better in understanding learners, developing curriculum, planning the lesson, and using the languange in the classroom or teacher talk. Unhappily, both of junior and senior teacher is still lack in comprehending basic principle theory of teaching and envolving potential of students. Yilmaz & Tinmaz (2016) in their study also discuss about students' perception on pedagogical competence at universtiy level in various subject. The result of the study revealed that in students' view their teachers have good attitude. Meanwhile in other aspects of pedagogy such as teaching and learning process, grading and assessment, they need to be improved. Arisman & Supardi (2019) revealed in their study that the most dominant of lecturer competence on English Listening subject in Dayanu Ikhsanuddin University is pedagogic competence.
Previous studies have been discussed about the significance of teachers especially teacher pedagogical competence and correlate it with students' success. Even there was a study discussing about the students' belief about teacher pedagogical competence at university level (Yilmaz & Tinmaz, 2016). However, that study evaluated teachers in various majors. Meanwhile in this study, the researcher will evaluate Engish teacher in application of pedagogical competence at senior high school level. It needs to be done, since teachers need to get contribution from students about their application in this competence.

Method
This study aims to investigate students' perception toward English teacher pedagogical competence at MAN 1 Malang, Indonesia. Therefore, this study can be categorized into qualitative research. Furthermore, the accessible population in this study was the second year of MAN 1 Malang which is consisted of five classes. Meanwhile, the sample of the study was eighty-seven students.
The main instrument used in this study is questionnaire. The questionnaire contains 60 statements. The questionnaire specifically describes students' view on English teacher competency in understanding the learners, teaching preparation, conducting teaching and learning activities, using approach/method of language teaching, encouraging the student to actualize their potential and teaching learning evaluation and assessment. The questionnaire was distributed among the students and their responses will be collected.
To find students perception on English teacher pedagogical competence, questionnaire adopted from Brown (2007), Kourieous and Evripidou (2013), and Akhyak et al., (2013) will be used in this study. The questionnaire contains 60-items using Indonesia language to avoid misunderstanding. It was arranged based on five-point Likert scale. After the questionnaires were made, the next step was consulted the questionnaires to the expert in order to get judgment and comment about the content of the questionnaires. Based on the expert's comment, there was no revision needed, however, the questionnaire needed to be tried out. By conducting pilot questionnaire, the researcher knew the students' response whether the questionnaires were understandable or not. Besides, through pilot questionnaires, the validity and reliability of this instrument were found out. Consequently, the invalid items are excluded from the analysis of the data.
The prerequisite of validity item is r computation > r table. From the pilot questionnaires, the reliability of students' perception on English teacher pedagogical competence was 0.705. The reliability is between 0.70 and 0.89, and it is assumed to be good. This value implied that the questionnaire was reliable and can be used as the instrument to gather the data. In responding to the questionnaires, the respondents have to check the best preference which represented how they felt about the topics included in the scale.

Result
The questionnaire that has been distributed to the students contains some statements that indicate teachers' pedagogical competency. The maximum score resulted from the second questionnaire is 199, while the minimum score is 100. From the interval, the classification of the questionnaire score is indicated in the table 1.
As shown in table 1, the most students agree that their English teacher has good pedagogical competence (78 %). It is drawn by calculated number of students in moderate and high category. From general depiction, it will be elaborated into sub-variable of pedagogical competence. There are six sub-variables to describe this competence.
From the questionnaire of first sub-variable result, it was showed that 50% of students respond assess that their teacher understand themselves, 34 % of students respond did not give any assessment for their teacher, otherwise 16 % respond negatively. Therefore, students' perception for the first sub-variable was fifty-fifty. A half of the students believe that their teacher understands themselves and a half another believes inversely.
Moreover, for the second sub variable, there were two sides in describing teachers' preparation in teaching; whether the teacher explains the aim and the goal, and the previous of the material or not. However, the students' response was likewise the first variable. A half of the students (49 %) regarded that their teacher had well preparation in teaching, 34 % students did not any comment, and 17 % students regarded that their teacher did not have well preparation in teaching. The third sub-variable of the second questionnaire, 66 % students responded positively teacher competence in conducting teaching learning activity. There were eight statements that were asked to be responded by the students. Among those statements, two points were the highest rank; when the students got the problems, the teachers gave the solution and help them, besides explaining the material were in accordance with the students' level of speed. Otherwise, 27 % students did not give any comments to their teachers. To sum up, teachers competence related to conduct teaching learning activity could be assumed good because the numbers of the students who responded positively were higher than the students who did not any respond or give low response.
Next, to dig information from the students related to teachers' approach/method of language teaching fifteen questions were arisen. Fifty-two of eighty-seven students gave a good response and agree with the statements, twenty-six students did not give certain answer, and 9 students gave negative response for the fourth sub-variable. Among those statements, the highest responses were that the teacher used several of methods in teaching, and inclined to ask the students to study in pairs or group.
Next, to dig information from the students related to teachers' approach/method of language teaching fifteen questions were arisen. Fifty-two of eighty-seven students gave a good response and agree with the statements, twenty-six students did not give certain answer, and 9 students gave negative response for the fourth sub-variable. Among those statements, the highest responses were that the teacher used several of methods in teaching, and inclined to ask the students to study in pairs or group.
Lastly, students' responses on teachers teaching evaluation and assessment were good enough. Sixty-nine percent of the students' response positive, twenty-six percent of the students did not give any comments, and only seven percent of the students responded negatively. Among the statement, there were two statements that got significant response that other statements. First, the students agree that the teacher often give exercises and give questions due to check students understanding. The lowest response was given by the students dealing with feedback or correction from the teachers.
In this study, there are six sub variables that are measured, namely: understanding the learner, teaching preparation, conducting teaching learning activity, using approach/method of language teaching, encourage their students to utilize students' potential, and conducting assessment related with pedagogical competence owned by teacher. From six variables almost the whole indicate that their teachers have good enough competency in pedagogy. Among six sub-variables, the highest respond is given for two variables; conducting teaching and learning activity and conducting assessment. The two sub-variable conducting teaching learning activity and assessment get the highest percentage 66 % and 69 %. Surprisingly, one-fourth percent students did not give any comment about their teachers' competency and the safe line by answer neither agree nor disagree.

Discussion
The result indicates that their English teachers have mastery the English subject and capable to integrate their knowledge and competency with other field of knowledge. In addition, their English teachers also have mastery competence standard and basic competence beside developing the material creatively. It deals with National Education Ministry Regulation No17, 2007 about competences that should be possessed by a teacher; understanding the material, understanding standard competence and basic competence, and developing material continuously. By improving competence continously, it absolutely contribute to students themselves (Adegbola & Depar, 2019;Hakim, 2015;Marinković et al., 2012).
Arisman & Supardi (2019) highlight urgency of having lecturer competence since the successful learning process is depend on that. Further, they claim that by having those competences, lecturer tends to be more creative in creating the learning environment, thus it can improve students' motivation in learning process. However, studies proof that there is positive correlation between motivation and academic success, such as Rachmawati & Putri, (2018). In addition to this, the use of ICT is one solution to increase students' motivation in a class (Lailiyah, 2016).
Eventhough total students who respond toward their teacher competence in pedagogic showed high scale competence but only one-third variable is valued good. Meanwhile, twothirds variable of pedagogical competence is still in moderate or low level. This finding indicates that the application of teacher pedagogical competence need to be improved.

Conclusion and Suggestions
Based on the previous discussion, it is found that most of the students have positive perception on English teacher pedagogical competences. In pedagogical aspect, two subvariables (conducting teaching learning activity and conducting assessment) got the highest score than four other. It proves that English teachers who teach at grade XI were understood their students need, conducting well preparation therefore the study were ready to follow the study by concerning student's level and give help to the students to actualize their self and implement approach/method of language teaching and giving evaluation and assessment.
This finding has become reflection on the teachers to always pay attention and improve their pedagogical competence in all sub-variables; understanding the learners, teaching preparation, conducting teaching and learning activities, using approach/method of language teaching, encouraging the student to actualize their potential and teaching learning evaluation and assessment. Further studies should be done related to the role of institution and government to improve teacher competencies.