Teacher Adaptation in Developing Competencies in Early Childhood Education Unit

Abstract

This qualitative research describes the efforts of a new teacher in an early childhood education unit with special needs in achieving the four competencies of PAUD teachers, including pedagogic, social, professional, and personality. Data collected by interviews, questionnaires, and documentation. The informant was a new teacher at TK ABK Rumah Pintar Salatiga. Data were analyzed descriptively by data reduction, data display, and conclusion drawing. The results show that there are two main efforts made by an ABK teacher in achieving four competencies, namely self-study and consulting with fellow teachers. From the 20 written questions, it was concluded that there were 45% of abilities achieved by self-study, 35% achieved by consulting fellow teachers, and 20% achieved by a combination of both. It implies that even though a new teacher has good individual abilities, she still needs the presence of others who have experienced in educating young children with special needs.
[Penelitian kualitatif ini ditujukan untuk mendeskripsikan upaya guru baru di satuan pendidikan anak usia dini (PAUD) berkebutuhan khusus dalam mencapai empat kompetensi guru PAUD, meliputi pedagogis, sosial, profesional, dan kepribadian. Teknik pengumpulan datanya berupa wawancara, kuesioner, dan dokumentasi. Informan penelitian ini adalah guru baru di TK ABK Rumah Pintar Salatiga. Data dianalisis secara deskriptif dengan cara reduksi data, display data, dan penarikan kesimpulan. Hasil penelitian memperlihatkan bahwa terdapat dua upaya utama yang dilakukan guru Anak Berkebutuhan Khusus (ABK) tersebut dalam mencapai empat kompetensi guru, yakni belajar sendiri dan berkonsultasi dengan rekan guru. Dari 20 butir pertanyaan tertulis disimpulkan bahwa 45% kemampuan dicapai dengan belajar sendiri, 35% dicapai dengan konsultasi kepada rekan guru, dan 20% dicapai dengan kombinasi keduanya. Hasil kajian mengimplikasikan bahwa meskipun guru baru memiliki kemampuan individu yang baik, tetap saja ia membutuhkan keberadaan guru lain yang telah terlebih dahulu berpengalaman dalam mendidik anak usia dini berkebutuhan khusus.]