The purpose of this qualitative study was to explore the classroom discussion engagement experiences, the challenges faced and strategies for their solution, of eight international Indonesian masters students in one public university in the United Kingdom through a demographic questionnaire and semi-structured interviews. The results indicated that the participants faced some speaking challenges in engaging in discussion, including (1) language barriers, (2) individual matters, and (3) academic culture differences. To cope with those challenges, the participants have undertaken strategies, such as (1) having the verbal response, (2) utilising learning sources, and (3) maintaining a positive motivation.

The purpose of this currents study was to examine the contributions of the contributions of leadership functions, supervision, and working motivation on teachers’ performance at public elementary school in one of the sub-districts in Jambi Province, Sumatra, Indonesia. Data were collected through a questionnaire from 122 teachers. The data were analyzed by using the descriptive analysis and regression analysis techniques, assistanced by the statistical application of the SPSS release 16.0. The findings of this study indicated that the leadership function included very high category with a mean value of 3.2657, supervision with a mean of 3.2608, motivation with a mean value of 3.3465, and teachers’ performance with the mean value of 3.4447. The findings of the simple regression analysis with a single-step method (entered) also indicated that the contribution of leadership function to teachers’ performance with a value of R Square was 47.6%, the contribution of supervision to teachers’ performance with a value of R Square was 45.3%, and the contribution of work motivation to teachers’ performance with a value of R Square was 69.3%. Furthermore, the findings of multiple the regression analysis showed that the contribution of leadership function, supervision, and working motivation altogether to teachers’ performance with the value of R Square was 74.3%. This study provided information for policy makers, school leaders, researchers, and teacher educators to understand how the contributions of the contributions of leadership functions, supervision, and working motivation affect teachers’ performance.

The purposes of this inquiry were to seek the multicultural awareness of students at homogeneously and heterogeneously populated schools in the Municipality of Sungai Penuh, Jambi, Indonesia. Data were collected through administrating the adapted version of Multicultural Awareness Scale to 334 students from one homogeneously populated senior high school and one heterogeneously populated madrasah aliyah (Islamic senior high school). Data were analyzed by using Rasch Analysis and tests of inferential statistics. The results of data analyses indicated that 1) the students had a relatively high multicultural awarness, 2)the examination on the map of item endorsabilty indicated that the students had high cultural awareness but low self-awareness, 3) the students at the heterogeneously populated madrasah aliyah had a higher multicultural awareness than their counterparts at the homogeneously populated senior high school, and 4) no statistically significant differences were found in the comparisons of the students’ awareness across the demographic variables across and within the same school. Policy implications and suggestions for future research are also discussed.

The purpose of this study was to examine English lecturers’ readiness toward internet use in English teaching and learning at selected universities in Jambi, Sumatra, Indonesia. A questionnaire was used as a research instrument to sixty-five participants who were recruited through a variety of networking sources, but forty-seven participants completed and returned the questionnaires. Data were analyzed by using descriptive statistics, Pearson Product Moment Correlation, and a t-test. The major findings indicated that the English lecturers’ readiness toward Internet use for teaching and learning was at an average level. This study also found that there was a significant positive correlation between the lecturers’ background of internet use and the level of lecturers’ readiness toward Internet use. There was a positive correlation between lecturers’ knowledge readiness and attitude readiness. However, there were significant differences in the level of readiness between English lecturers at public institutions and private institutions. The findings of this study shed light on policy makers and leaders’ understanding of English lecturers’ readiness toward internet use in English teaching and learning in Indonesian higher education. Policy implications and future research are also discussed.

The purpose of this quantitative research was to examine whether there were statistically significant differences in Islamic elementary public school teachers’ curriculum orientation and teaching conception across demographic variables of gender, age, and teaching experience. Data were collected through questionnaires from 65 Islamic elementary public school teachers. Data were analysed through Rasch analysis and tests of inferential statistics. The results of the data analysis show that, over all: 1) the teachers’ curriculum orientation tended to be “technological” and “academic” rather than “social reconstructionistic”; and 2) the teachers tended to conceptualize teaching as “apprenticeshipdevelopmental” and “knowledge transmission” rather than “nurturing” or “social reform”. Tests of inferential statistics revealed a significant difference between male and female teachers’ conception of teaching. A significant difference was also found in the teachers’ curriculum orientation across the demographic variable of teaching experience. No significant difference was found across the variable of age. Correlations were identified between the teachers’ curriculum orientation and teaching conception. The findings of this study provide evidence for policy makers, school leaders, researchers, parents, and teacher educators that the curriculum orientation and teaching conception of the majority of the teachers seems to be incompatible with the nature of character education that necessitates teachers to be “nurturing” and “social reconstructionistic”. In addition, evaluation and reorientation of paradigms and approaches in teacher education and educational objectives and further research are suggested.