Journal of Applied Linguistics and Literature, Vol. 5(2), 2020 174 JOALL (Journal of Applied Linguistics and Literature) Vol. 5 No. 2, 2020 ISSN (print): 2502-7816; ISSN (online): 2503-524X Available online at https://ejournal.unib.ac.id/index.php/joall/index doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.33369/joall.v5i2.11260 REFLECTIVE PRACTICE AS TOOLS TO EXPLORE IN- SERVICE TEACHERS’ BELIEFS AND CLASSROOM PRACTICES: INDONESIAN EFL TEACHERS’ VOICES Dwi Bayu Saputra1; Didi Suherdi2; Rojab Siti Rodliyah3 Universitas Pendidikan Indonesia1,2,3 Corresponding email: dwibayusaputra@student.upi.edu Abstract Reflective practice is widely acknowledged as the most effective means to create effective teacher who wants to have better understanding of their works. It has been explicitly stated in western academic teacher education curriculum due to its significant impact on constructing life- long learning for teachers. However, this beneficial contribution of teachers’ professional development is not growing within the context of English as a foreign Language (EFL) teaching. Accordingly, this descriptive qualitative research aimed at (1) investigating teachers’ beliefs in teaching and learning English by utilizing reflective tools, and (2) attempting to identify whether or not their beliefs are implemented in their practices in which the reasons will also be explored. The data were gathered through interviews and classroom observations as the main source. Three English teachers were investigated to elicit their beliefs about teaching and learning. The findings showed years of teaching experiences and past experiences as a learner are the most arisen theme in which the initial facet strongly affects the way they perceive teaching, and the latter occurrence theme indirectly shape the teachers’ beliefs. As regards to the relation of their practices and their stated belief, however, not all of their beliefs were implemented in the classroom due to several factors such as the students’ factors, time-constraint, and the school obligations. Keywords: Teachers’ beliefs; classroom practices; reflective practices; EFL teachers INTRODUCTION The alteration from the former curriculum to the latest, Curriculum 2013, in Indonesia is expected to give positive impacts to both teachers and students (Saputra, 2019). To create good quality teachers, reflective practice is believed to be the utmost influential means and it recently became one of the emerging issues in Indonesian curriculum. Due to its prospective benefit, part of the aspects in the curriculum demands the teachers to become reflective practitioners with optimism to prompt a life-long learning for teachers. http://dx.doi.org/10.33369/joall.v5i2.11260 Reflective Practice as Tools to Explore In-Service Teachers’ Beliefs and… 175 Journal of Applied Linguistics and Literature, Vol. 5(2), 2020 Despite this implicit demand, Nurfaidah et al (2017) argue that the curriculum gives no direct instructions for teacher to implement Reflective Practice especially in teaching context. In contrast, Karnita et al (2017) asserts that western academic teacher education curriculum explicitly states the importance of reflective teaching practices along with the reflective activities as part of learning program. Comparing these two phenomena, there is still a need for scholars to investigate how reflective practice is perceived in Asian teaching culture. Only recently the popularity of this approach has flourished in some eastern countries, such as Qatar (Ahmed, 2019), Turkey (Burhan-Horasanlı & Ortaçtepe, 2016), Vietnam (Nguyen, 2019), Thailand (Swatevacharkul, 2019), Malaysia (Amin et al., 2019), and in Indonesia, reflection and reflective teaching have been part of many teacher education programmes (Zulfikar & Mujiburrahman, 2018). However, Zulfikar (2019) maintains that this approach has not been common in Indonesian educational contexts and has received very little attention from Indonesian scholars. John Dewey, a founding father of progressive education, defines reflective practice as a deliberate and persistent way of thinking about one’s actions, representing strategies that respond to the need to find ways to improve one’s classroom practices (Toom et al., 2015, Zulfikar, 2019). As stated in Zulfikar (2019), Donald Schön extending Dewey’s concept, posited three types of reflection: reflection on, in and for action. Reflection on action is conducted to identify one’s previous practice in order to improve future action (Schön, 2017). Reflection in action is teachers’ consciousness of their on- going practices. They are encouraged to engage in reflection in-action to help change or modify their practices. Reflection for-action, which Burhan- Horasanlı & Ortaçtepe (2016) refer to as anticipatory reflection, is done prior to teachers’ actual practices, forming a loop with reflection on-action. Teachers hold complex beliefs about teaching and learning. These beliefs further have a strong impact on classroom practices (Basturkmen, 2012; Farrell & Ives, 2015; Kuzborska, 2011). Besides, teachers’ beliefs in teaching language and teachers’ beliefs in learning needs to be explored. Gilakjani & Sabouri (2017) said that teachers make decisions about their classroom teaching regarding beliefs they have about language teaching and learning. Meanwhile, Xu (2012) stated that it is impossible to contemplate teaching in isolation from learning. Thus, teachers’ beliefs about what learning is will affect everything that they do in the classroom, whether these beliefs are implicit or explicit. Even if a teacher acts spontaneously, or from habit without thinking about the action, such actions are nevertheless prompted by a deep- rooted belief that may never have been articulated or made explicit. As teachers’ practices emerge as the result of their beliefs in teaching, they have to improve their teaching gradually in order to be better. However, Dwi Bayu Saputra; Didi Suherdi; Rojab Siti Rodliyah Journal of Applied Linguistics and Literature, Vol. 5(2), 2020 176 teachers cannot just rely on the practices without any attempts to expand them. Meaningful practice then will enthusiastically help the teachers to enhance their practices in teaching (Renandya, 2017). To conduct this kind of practice, teachers are expected to do reflection. It can be done by several ways such as recording their own teaching, asking another teacher to observe their teaching, writing a journal about the problems occurred in the classroom and having a discussion with other teachers (Hamied, 2018). Furthermore, there is no study that mainly focuses on exploring teachers’ beliefs and classroom practices by using reflective practice in Indonesia. Similarly, scant attention has been paid to teachers’ beliefs and classroom practices in Indonesia. Thus, the researcher needs to address the gap in order to know how beliefs influence practices and vice versa associated with teaching foreign language in Indonesia context. Therefore, this research attempted to use reflective practice to explore teachers’ beliefs in teaching and learning and their relationship with their classroom practices. To address the issue, the research questions of this study were: 1) what beliefs do the teachers hold about teaching English; to what extend do the teachers’ classroom practices reflect their beliefs? This investigation on the process of actualizing reflective practice done by EFL teacher might inform EFL teachers’ stated beliefs and their classroom practices a holistic portrait for a better framework of its need’s analysis especially in Indonesia context. METHODS In order to cope with the purposes of the research, this research applied descriptive qualitative design. A descriptive design is chosen since it attempts to present a complete description of a phenomenon within its context (Hancock & Algozzine, 2006). It is an approach that is very useful when researchers want to know, regarding events, who were involved, what was involved, and where did things take place (Lambert & Lambert, 2013). this inquiry, this research dealt with investigating three English teachers in Cimahi, West Java. Since this study was a qualitative study, the results were not going to be generalized as general conditions of the whole teachers in Indonesia. Rather the experiences of the teacher regarding reflections provided fruitful insight into some challenges, benefits and other aspects of reflection in teachers’ beliefs and classroom practices of teaching EFL classroom in particular. Participants Three participants were interviewed and observed to find out their beliefs in teaching and learning English and their classroom practices regarding their stated beliefs. Interviews can provide the researcher with information about Reflective Practice as Tools to Explore In-Service Teachers’ Beliefs and… 177 Journal of Applied Linguistics and Literature, Vol. 5(2), 2020 people’s attitudes, their values, and what they think they do, however, there is no substitute for watching them or examining documents and other forms of communication that they create (Fraenkel & Wallen, 2017). In this study, the researchers conducted both interview and non-participant observation where the researchers do not participate in the activity being observed but rather sit and watch. The study was conducted in one public Senior High Schools in Cimahi, West Java. In order to preserve anonymity pseudonyms were given to all participants-henceforth named Citra, Hassya, and Saidah, when referring to them in this study. The following is the participants. Citra Citra grew up in Arcamanic Bandung. Before moving to Cimahi, she has tried to apply a test for being a civil servant in Bandung in 2005 and passed the test. Citra has been living in Cimahi from 2006 until 2018. She got her bachelor degree at Indonesia University of education in 2005. So right after she graduated, she was accepted as an English teacher in Cimahi. She is also studying her master degree in the same University. She started to learn English when her father brought his friend from Australia. His father’s friend also took his daughter then Citra tried to speak English with her named Erica. Erica at that time always visited them every week, so the respondent needed to learn English in order to be able to communicate with his foreign friend. It was when she was at fourth grade of Elementary school. Therefore, she was accustomed to speak in English every week. She also mentioned that she started to love English because of that occurrence. She has been teaching English for about 13 years since she graduated from the University. Before graduating, she also ever had a part time job as a teacher in one school in Bandung. She is also active in writing a journal. She has written two action research and four journal articles. Moreover, in 2015, she was appointed to be a national instructor for two weeks and she also ever followed the IELTS program funded by the government for about one month. She also actively participates in MGMP for about once in a month. Currently, Citra teaches in several places. Besides teaching at SMAN 4 Cimahi, she is also teaching at one school in Bandung every Friday. Moreover, she also teaches English in a course placed in Bandung as well. Hassya Hassya is an English teacher who grew up in Sukaharjo, Central Java. She took her study in Solo until she graduated from senior high school. After graduating from school, she continued her study in Sanata Darma University. She got her bachelor degree in 1989. Dwi Bayu Saputra; Didi Suherdi; Rojab Siti Rodliyah Journal of Applied Linguistics and Literature, Vol. 5(2), 2020 178 She has been teaching English since 1991. At first, she taught English at one of Senior High Schools in Yogyakarta. Then she moved to Cimahi in 1994 and teach in SMAN4 Cimahi until now. In teaching, she also ever taught in both private and junior high schools. Before being accepted as a civil servant, she taught in vocational school one and half year. So, she has been teaching English for about 28 years. Regarding teacher’s training, Hassya has ever attended some professional training such as MGMP. She joined that kind of program in 2015 talking about curriculum 2013. However, nowadays she admits that she rarely joined training because of her tight schedule. It might also be the reason that she did not write any journal for doing reflections. She said that she only wrote journal, like an action research if she wanted to get promotion. Saidah Saidah is a Minangnese who was born in Bandung. She got her diploma in Teacher Traning School in 1987. Right after graduating from that school, she directly continued her study in STKIP Pasundan, Bandung. After she got her bachelor degree, she tried to take a civil servant test in Rangkasbitung, Banten. Luckily, the government accepted her and she was asked to teach there for about three years. In 1999, she moved to West Java, teaching English at SMAN4 Cimahi until the current time. She has been teaching for about 25 years. Before she got accepted as a civil servant, she had taught in SMAN 5 Cimahi for about three years. Saidah had bad experiences in learning English. She learnt English for the first time at junior high school and sadly she got five in English. She was frustrated at that time but it did not make her demotivated in learning English. Regardless the bad score she got, she kept learning English and even harder. With that spirit and extra effort in learning English, she developed to love English and choose English as her major for her higher education. In Teacher Training School, she realized that the school she was studied gave insufficient knowledge so that she took several English courses to advance her English. As a teacher, she sometimes attended some trainings. Lately she was assigned by the school to join a training in Lembang, Bandung about technology in teaching English for about a week. Previously, she also attended a seminar that discussed the 2013 curriculum. Interestingly, she rarely wrote a journal or article regarding teaching and learning processes. Besides, she also wrote three classroom action research because of the prerequisite to get a promotion. Instruments This study deployed two types of data collections: interview and observation. Reflective Practice as Tools to Explore In-Service Teachers’ Beliefs and… 179 Journal of Applied Linguistics and Literature, Vol. 5(2), 2020 Interview There were three stages of interview: pre-study interview, main interview and post-interview. Pre-study interview was a kind of interview that asked about the participants’ background regarding teaching and learning English. This interview was done in the second meeting after the researcher went into the field. Also, the researchers asked them to write an essay for each about their beliefs in teaching and learning. Main interview was delivered to seek the participants’ beliefs about learning English and teaching at Senior High School. This kind of data were used as triangulation to see whether these beliefs were applied in the classroom or not. The post-lesson interview of post- observation interviews were conducted after each respondent finished her teaching. The researcher in this interview directly asked the teachers regarding the teaching and learning process in the lesson which had been observed Observation The second data collection is observation where the researcher observed each participant three times within 90 minutes duration for each lesson. There were 8 lessons in total, so it took more than a month to finish all the observations. Besides, this type of data collection was used to answer the second research question about the actual teaching performance of the respondent. Particularly, the researcher here wrote down the activities done by the respondent. Also, the researcher made the observation notes after each session of the observations finished. In each session, the researchers always interviewed the respondents after they finished their lesson. This helped the research to know the purpose of their teaching precisely. The researcher paid attention to some areas namely: (1) content, (2) delivery of instruction, and (3) methods/teaching strategies. Through observation, the research clearly saw types of methods, strategies, interactions, media used and other supporting things that the participant conduct during teaching and learning process. Data Analysis Procedure Data obtained from the interview was analyzed to answer the first research question in which it sought the respondent’s beliefs in teaching. Overall, there were three steps to analyze the data from interview. Step 1, interviews were transcribed. The interview transcripts were read many times to look for the statements representing the ideas related to the research question. The second step was coding the data. The coding method in this study followed Malik and Abdul-Hamied's (2014) suggestion by locating the relevant texts containing the repeating ideas within the same level of reflection, followed by categorizing the recurring themes of the beliefs. Step 3 was interpreting and concluding the data into the findings as descriptive report. The data gained Dwi Bayu Saputra; Didi Suherdi; Rojab Siti Rodliyah Journal of Applied Linguistics and Literature, Vol. 5(2), 2020 180 from classroom observations was analyzed to answer the second research question in which it discussed the extent to which the participants’ stated beliefs was transferred into their actual teaching activities in the classroom. This made the researcher see the discrepancy between the respondents’ stated beliefs in learning and beliefs in teaching English. FINDINGS There were two major themes found in this issue: Teachers’ beliefs about teachers’ roles and teachers’ beliefs about teaching approach. Most of the respondents had their own beliefs towards those investigated aspects. Each argument would be presented respectively in the subsequent paragraphs. Teachers’ Stated Beliefs about Teachers’ Roles The ministry of education in Indonesia has launched curriculum 2013 several years ago with some alterations. One of them is teachers’ roles. Correspondingly, this changing of the curriculum also leads to the new expectations from the government towards the roles of the teachers. In this current study, the researcher found several issues articulated by the three respondents. Some mentioned the inclination of the respondents to become a facilitator when teaching. The others, on the other hand, shared different perceptions. Table 1. Teachers’ Stated Beliefs about the Teachers’ Roles No Stated Beliefs Citra Hassya Saidah 1 Teachers should be the one who transmit the knowledge √ √ √ 2 Teachers should be able to develop their interpersonal skills. √ ► √ 3 Teachers should act as a facilitator √ ► √ 4 Teachers should implement and share what they attained in any professional development training ► ► √ 5 Teachers should be able to control their emotion ► √ ► 6 Teachers should build rapport with their students √ √ ► Key: √= Stated; ►=Not stated The three respondents shared different perspectives in perceiving their role in the classroom. The first respondent, Citra believed that she was a knowledge transmitter and facilitator. This respondent claimed that in coping with the demand of the curriculum, she tried to modify what the curriculum asked her to do and what the respondent would carry out in her classroom practices. She believed that teachers should become both a transmitter and also a facilitator. Citra added that being a facilitator did not mean that the students learn by themselves without any guidance from the teachers. The following was the excerpt of his issue. Reflective Practice as Tools to Explore In-Service Teachers’ Beliefs and… 181 Journal of Applied Linguistics and Literature, Vol. 5(2), 2020 Citra: ……. the demand of the curriculum brings the teachers to be as a facilitator for the students. So, the students should explore themselves through many kinds of learning sources. (Interview excerpt #1) The excerpt above was the evidence of her beliefs that she acted as a facilitator because she was asked to do so. The respondent also added that being a facilitator meant that the teachers asked the students to be active in the classroom. The issue of students as a center of learning was brought in her beliefs. However, the respondent has to admit that implementing students as a center of the learning was not easy. The following was the excerpt of her interview Citra: But in the reality, as a matter of fact, it would be very hard for the teachers because students in the first grade of senior high were accustomed to be feed by teacher in junior high. (Interview excerpt #2) From the vignette above, Citra claimed the teachers were asked to be as a facilitator where the teaching and learning processes should be in a student-centered. The students were expected to be highly active with the activities offered by the teacher. She blamed the teaching processes in junior high level where the students just listened to their teachers without being active in the classroom. She was certain that the way the students are being taught in junior high should also be altered. Nevertheless, the respondent asserted that the teachers should find the other methods that fit to the students’ needs. The issue of the students’ needs and expectation reemerged here. It can be seen that her beliefs about teachers’ roles was shaped by her students’ expectation for learning. The following was the excerpt of this issue. Citra: I do not really like teaching in ways the newest curriculum offered. It does not fit with what the student used to obtain in their previous state of learning. They prefer to listen to their teacher and take a note. (Interview excerpt #3) From the excerpt above, it was revealed that the respondent’s beliefs were influenced and strengthened by her students. In the interview, the participant mentioned that she enjoyed teaching by using the old ways of teaching such as giving explanation to the students. Then she tried to use newest curriculum where teachers could not explain all the time. Yet she found her students did not feel comfortable with that newest ways and prefer the old one. Eventually, Citra tried to modify what the curriculum has offered to fit with her students’ expectancy. Notwithstanding the difficulties in implementing the demand from the curriculum, Citra still attempted to become a facilitator in her classroom. The following excerpt would show the effort she made in coping with the curriculum demands: Dwi Bayu Saputra; Didi Suherdi; Rojab Siti Rodliyah Journal of Applied Linguistics and Literature, Vol. 5(2), 2020 182 Citra: ……. the needs from a lesson plan is two meetings, so I put my roles first as center of learning but integrated with lots kind of ICT, Media, with attractive performance and also interactive learning. In a second meeting, I will use kind of role that is a facilitator. (Interview excerpt #26) To fill the gap, the respondent separated her teaching into two different occasions. The first meeting, she was the center of the classroom where she explained the lesson with the help of ICT as well. However, in the second meeting, she became a facilitator where she put the students in groups and worked cooperatively. The former showed that she was trying to cope with the government’s obligation yet the later revealed that she was attempting to meet her students’ expectation. Correspondingly, she informed the researcher about how she perceived good qualities of teachers. The respondent believed that teachers whose qualities are noble should be able to have good plan in teaching. It meant that making and designing the lesson plan are crucial for her. She also mentioned that teachers should be able to assess their students appropriately. The following excerpt showed her notions of this issue. Citra: Good qualities of teachers, actually teachers who can do their work professionally with a good attitude. Professional here means that they can arrange the lesson plan appropriately and they can manage the process well and the assessment is also great in testing…. (Interview excerpt #27) The respondent admitted that she was not one of the qualities of good teachers. She reflected herself with the criteria of good teachers and found that she still needed to learn many things towards her professional. Citra: If I reflect myself, I am not a good teacher because a lot of my weaknesses. I cannot stand fully at school because sometimes I must go to some places like what another English teacher just now did to attend training. I also will have a chance to attend training in a second of May until 9. So that’s quite long, so I must leave my student so it is not a good teacher. (Interview excerpt #28) On the other hand, regarding this issue, Saidah admitted that she found herself difficult in coping with the demand of 2013 curriculum where teacher should be as a facilitator. The following excerpt presented the ideas. Saidah: Regarding the demand of the curriculum that ask the teachers to be as a facilitator, I personally said that it is not possible. The time is not enough. Doing practice in the classroom is not enough. And the other problem is we cannot give the students with lots of homework. (Interview excerpt #29) Reflective Practice as Tools to Explore In-Service Teachers’ Beliefs and… 183 Journal of Applied Linguistics and Literature, Vol. 5(2), 2020 From the excerpt above, it can be seen that the main constrain in implementing the newest curriculum 2013 was lack of time that the teacher and the students had. This problem also came to the surface by the initial respondent explain above. Saidah mentioned that the curriculum put a high expectancy to the teachers, yet teacher’s time was limited to run what the curriculum obliged her to carry out. Correspondingly, the respondent stated that the teacher needed time to create a lesson which was interesting. This could not be obtained if the teacher had to teach in more than two classes a day. Besides, the students also needed more time to understand the lesson if the lesson was delivered by using students-center or discovery learning. If she used it, the teaching objective would not be accomplished and the students would not get all the lesson that the school gave. Thus, she believed that teachers should see their students’ ability first. If the students could cope with discovery learning, teacher could be as a facilitator in that class. But if the students were slow in understanding the lesson, the teachers should modify their roles in the classroom and attempted to improve their teaching in order to make their students understand. Being a facilitator meant that the process of learning was mostly from the students and it would take more time. Moreover, this respondent also mentioned the criteria of good qualities of teachers. Saidah said that there were four aspects that teachers should have. She mentioned three out of four because she forgets the last aspect. They were pedagogy mastery, willingness to learn and social aspects. Here is the excerpt from Saidah regarding this issue: Saidah: There are four aspects that the teachers should have. They are pedagogy, professional and social aspects. Social where the teacher can communicate with their environment well. The teachers also have to be willing to develop their profession by join some seminars and the most important thing is they have to implement what they got from the seminar to their students. And I try to implement those roles given by the government since I have to. (Interview excerpt #30) She added that teachers should be able to immerse with the environment. It meant that she believed that teachers’ job was not only teaching, but teachers should have good communication skills to others. The other point was good qualities of teachers was the ones who openly want to learn. Being a teacher does not mean that she or he can stop learning. Otherwise, teachers have to keep learning by attending seminar or workshop in order to improve their professionalism. To conclude, some respondents shared similar beliefs regarding their beliefs about themselves as a teacher. They believed that the teachers should Dwi Bayu Saputra; Didi Suherdi; Rojab Siti Rodliyah Journal of Applied Linguistics and Literature, Vol. 5(2), 2020 184 follow the regulation such as curriculum where the teachers should act as a facilitator instead of only a knowledge transmitter. Conversely, those teachers also believed that explaining a lesson or lecturing the students could create effective learning. Moreover, most of the respondents attempted to cover the aims of the curriculum by trying to be a facilitator in teaching, yet it could not be denied that they still perceived their students primarily as objects of the teaching rather than active and collaborative problem-solvers and managers of their own learning in the classroom. Teachers’ Beliefs about Teaching Grammar In this aspect, the focus was in how the respondents present the grammar point to their students. Most of the respondents mentioned that grammar teaching was integrated in four main aspects of teaching such as listening, speaking, reading and writing. The following excerpt revealed one of the respondents’ ideas about her beliefs in grammar teaching. Saidah: In teaching grammar, it is integrated with the other four main aspects of English such as listening, speaking, reading and writing. The demand of the curriculum also ask the teachers to teach grammar implicitly where the teachers can use discovery learning for letting the students find the rules of grammar by themselves. (Excerpt of journal writing #34) From the excerpt above, the respondent believed that teaching grammar should be using discovery learning. She believed that if the students found the pattern by themselves, they would memorize the pattern more. Hassya also mentioned that grammar should be taught along with the other aspects of English. The respondent stated that English teachers should always put grammar point in every aspects of English. Hassya: I believed that grammar is the most important aspect in English. By mastering grammar, the students will feel confident to speak and write. They also can answer the questions in the exams. (Interview excerpt #35) The following table presented the respondents’ beliefs in accordance with presenting grammar. Table 2. Presenting Grammar No Stated Beliefs Citra Hassya Saidah 1 Grammar should be presented in context √ √ √ 2 Students should learn better when they discover the pattern by themselves √ ► √ 3 Grammar should be integrated with others English aspects √ √ √ Key: √= Stated; ►=Not stated Moreover, the research would explore the beliefs that were not implemented by the respondents and their explanation of their decision not Reflective Practice as Tools to Explore In-Service Teachers’ Beliefs and… 185 Journal of Applied Linguistics and Literature, Vol. 5(2), 2020 to implement the beliefs. The following table would present the incongruences occurred among the respondents’ stated believed and their observed classrooms. Table 3. The respondents’ stated beliefs and observed practices No Stated Beliefs Observed Practices 1 Grammar should be presented in context Grammar was taught in isolation 2 Students learn better when they discover the pattern by themselves Teacher used rule-based presentation 3 Grammar should be integrated with others English aspects Grammar was delivered exclusively 4 Student-centered promotes students’ activeness Students were passive even though they were in group In the table three, it presented the mismatch that occurred in this study with the realities that the researcher found in the observed classrooms. Most of the respondents acted differently from their beliefs when it came to grammar point. All of the respondents believed that grammar should be integrated with other English aspects, yet the observed classroom showed that the teachers put grammar lessons exclusively in one meeting. They used the whole meetings to teach grammar. The other mismatch was in the issue of student-centeredness. The respondents believed that student-centered lesson gave more contribution to make students become active. They also believed that students would be active when they work collaboratively. However, the observed classroom showed the opposite. These incongruences would be explored in the following paragraphs. In this issue, the teachers’ beliefs were that when the students found the grammar pattern by themselves through discussion or discovery learning, they could learn better and memorize more. This could be beneficial for them when they encountered the exams. However, in the observed classrooms, the researcher did not find any discovery learning mentioned earlier in the interview sections. The following paragraphs would present the evidence with the discussion from the respondents. Teacher: Well, let’s discuss the assignment that I gave to you. So, what is the answer of number one? Students: Because of (students answered it all together) Teacher: good, Number two? Students: Because Teacher: look at the board, there is a cause and an effect. Cause is used to answer a question of “why”. Effect is used to answer question of “what”. Teacher: Let’s answer the questions by discussing them with your friends started from number one until umber 10 in task 16. (Saidah: Observation 1) Dwi Bayu Saputra; Didi Suherdi; Rojab Siti Rodliyah Journal of Applied Linguistics and Literature, Vol. 5(2), 2020 186 The conversation above was one of the excerpts of observation in the first observed classroom of Saidah. In this teaching practices, the respondent used students work books. The students were asked in the beginning of the lesson to fill in the gap and also choose the correct answers. The lesson was about cause and effect where the students had not yet learnt the lesson previously. Ten minutes were given to the students to answer and then the respondent discussed the right answers. From the excerpt, it can be seen that the lesson was mainly focused on teachers even though the respondent asked the students to discuss with their friends in the beginning of the lessons. In the post observation interview, the researcher asked the respondent in accordance with these incongruences. The following excerpt below showed her response. Saidah: I planned to make the students found the differences between cause and effect in today’s lesson. It worked in the beginning of the lesson. The students answered the activities from their work-books. After that, I wanted to bring them to the discussion regarding the activities that they have just done. I saw my students were confused and that was okay. Yet, the discussion did not seem to light them. Thus, I thought that I needed to explain to them to cut some times because we still had more lesson that we should work before this the semester is over. (Saidah: Post-observation 1) From the post-observation interview, the researcher could reveal that the respondent attempted to implement her beliefs that students were better learning when they found the grammar pattern by themselves. However, the practices did not reflect her beliefs. Hassya on the other hand, always used teacher-centered in teaching grammar. She believed that teacher-centered can trigger the students to be active in teaching grammar. She mentioned this because she believed that when the learning was based on students’ expectancy, students would be feeling motivated to learn. The other participant, Citra, also did the opposite from her beliefs in discovery learning in teaching grammar. The following showed her beliefs. Teacher: Now, we will learn about future perfect. I want you to sit in a group of four. Teacher: watch the video and find the definition and the rules of future perfect. (Citra: Observation 2) The video played by the teacher was about the pattern to form future tense. The video said future perfect is consisted of will + have + past participle, and used when an activity will be completed before a future time. Then, the video showed the examples of future perfect. After that, Citra gave her own example Reflective Practice as Tools to Explore In-Service Teachers’ Beliefs and… 187 Journal of Applied Linguistics and Literature, Vol. 5(2), 2020 and then asked the students to work in group to make their own sentence and the other students gave feedback to their friends’ sentences. The researcher perceived that the video here just replaced her roles as a transmitter of knowledge, not as a facilitator. The respondent mentioned Researcher: why do you use video in telling them the pattern of the grammar? Teacher: I used video to attract them. I found whenever I explained the rules by my own voice, or traditionally, their face was not as bright as when I used video. Moreover, it could save my voices. (Citra: Post observation 2) The respondent explained the use of the video was only to attract the students’ attention even though the content was similar with what she usually did in teaching grammar (rule-based presentation). Furthermore, it can also be seen that the respondent did explain the rules of grammar point explicitly that meant this was not in line with her beliefs that students learn better when they find the pattern of grammar by themselves. The following conversation revealed the factor that prevented her to implement her beliefs. Researcher: Did you let your students find the pattern in this lesson? Teacher: Well, actually I really wanted to move away from explaining the grammar point and wanted to use implicit grammar teaching. I believed today’s generation needs to think critically and by letting them discover the pattern by themselves, they train their mind to think critically. However, we are dealing with lots of tasks and the students need to finish all the lesson before the exam. Thus, I need to run this grammar teaching faster. (Citra: Post observation 2) From the excerpt above, it can be seen that this respondent’s beliefs were prevented by the final exams that would occur in the near future. Thus, the researcher concluded that the explicit teaching that the respondent utilized was shaped because of the limit of time the students and the teacher had. Besides, her responsibility as a transmitter of knowledge also overrides her beliefs to do different as her beliefs. DISCUSSION Teachers’ Stated Beliefs about Teachers’ Roles There are several issues emerged concerning how the teachers perceived themselves as teachers. Their beliefs are formed from some different array of aspects such as school, students, and their teaching experience. The finding of this present study has also revealed that each teacher has her own characteristic and beliefs concerning the roles of being effective teachers. Almost all participants share similar perspectives that teachers need to not Dwi Bayu Saputra; Didi Suherdi; Rojab Siti Rodliyah Journal of Applied Linguistics and Literature, Vol. 5(2), 2020 188 only transmit the knowledge but also facilitate the student to learn. Most of their beliefs are influenced by contextual factors like curriculum. The teachers alter their beliefs in order to incorporate with new curriculum. In a similar vein, this finding confirms Mertala (2019) findings that teachers’ beliefs are shaped by macro- and micro-contextual factors including national educational policies and personal experiences. The participants also mentioned the main constrain in implementing the newest curriculum 2013 was lack of time that the teacher and the students had. They mentioned that the curriculum put a high expectancy to the teachers, yet teacher’s time was limited to run what the curriculum obliged her to carry out. This is in line with the finding in Saputra (2019) where the participants said that the newest curriculum is too restrictive and they needed a more flexible one. As teachers try to cope with the demand of curriculum, they found that they cannot fully apply their beliefs in the classroom due to time constraint. The respondents claimed that being facilitator is challenging because they need to ensure that the time is sufficient enough to cover all of the lessons delivered. This finding also confirms Farrell and Lim (2005) finding that time is possibly one of the major external factors over which teachers have little or no control and that appears to affect the implementation of beliefs, especially in the context of the Singapore education system. Even though the respondents felt so much burden in applying the Curriculum, they seem to seemed to agree with the demand of curriculum regarding good qualities of teachers. They did not reflect to their experiences when she was a student. This finding is contradicted with Abdi and Asadi (2015) who asserted a lot of teachers know that they were previously learners and how they were taught and these helped them form their beliefs about teaching. But it is in line with Gilakjani and Sabouri (2017) who mentioned that school plays an important role in shaping teachers’ beliefs. This participant could aside her beliefs and follows the school regulation. One respondent formed her beliefs from the students’ abilities in learning English. She needed to observe which approach was useful to her students and picked the best one. This meant that her beliefs were shaped by her experience in teaching and it was supported by her students’ processes in understanding the lessons. This is in line with Borg (2003) in his theory found that cognitive influences teachers’ beliefs. In this issue the teacher followed the students’ interest to maintain students’ involvement in which Richards (1996) stated as the maxim of involvement. Teachers’ Beliefs about Teaching Grammar The findings show that the respondents integrated grammar teaching with four main aspects of teaching such as listening, speaking, reading and writing. Reflective Practice as Tools to Explore In-Service Teachers’ Beliefs and… 189 Journal of Applied Linguistics and Literature, Vol. 5(2), 2020 However, not all of their beliefs were implemented in the classrooms. There were some incongruences among their beliefs and their classroom practices due to several factors. Students’ low proficiency in English and the tight schedule forced the teachers to alter their beliefs from students-centered to teachers-centered. The respondents’ beliefs were modified when they encountered the unpredictable situations which it relates to reflection for-action. Reflection for action, which Burhan-Horasanli and Ortaçtepe (2016) refer to as anticipatory reflection, is done prior to teachers’ actual practices, forming a loop with reflection on action. In this case is the students’ lack of comprehensiveness in the topics. The respondents first wanted to implement students-centered, but due to these barriers, they used teacher-centered in the classroom. This finding is in line with Thomas (2013) who found that professionally qualified teachers showed reluctance in dealing with classroom management problems that can occur when some student-centered teaching methods (such as discussion method) are used. Besides, the students’ low ability to cope with the lessons could lead to other problems. The student would feel frustrated or unmotivated. Accordingly, the respondent changed her beliefs temporarily and used teacher-centered or rule-based presentation in grammar class. Again, Type of reflections emerged here was reflection for action. The teacher had an alternative plan if the first plan does not work well. Instead rigidly used students-centered, she managed to implement teachers-centered. Also, the participants admitted that they did not apply their beliefs of implicit grammar teaching because the students still have lots of lesson to learn and they ran out of time. Thus, due to the tight schedule, the participants taught explicit grammar to shorten the time used. This finding corresponds to Rahman & Rashid (2017) which found explicit instruction saves more time and grammar is not acquired through natural learning but it should be taught in isolation. Even though most of the respondents agreed that students should be active in the classroom which meant the teachers should stress the learning processes in a form of students as a center of learning, most of the activities carried out by the teachers were in the form of teacher as a center in the teaching and learning processes. The researcher found that these inconsistencies of the teachers’ beliefs and their classroom practices were due to several factors. The first factor was the students’ expectation in learning. The respondent said that most of the students expected their teachers to explain the lesson clearly. This teacher- centered learning has been cultivated in the students’ brain since they were taught in that way in junior high school. The second factor was because of the tight schedule that the teachers have. The respondents believed that using Dwi Bayu Saputra; Didi Suherdi; Rojab Siti Rodliyah Journal of Applied Linguistics and Literature, Vol. 5(2), 2020 190 student-centered consumed a lot of time. The teachers could not cope with this type of teaching because they were asked to deliver many aspects in every semester to the students. CONCLUSION AND SUGGESTION Teachers’ beliefs are important to investigate since they affect the way the teachers teach. Exploring them can be worthwhile especially in the context of teaching EFL in Indonesia. Meanwhile, reflective practice can be the utmost tool for teachers to utter their beliefs and to see whether their beliefs are in line with their practices. This study has investigated teachers’ beliefs by using reflective tools such as interview and observation. The results of this study indicate that having the participants stated their beliefs in the interview and having them to write their beliefs can contribute to the exploration and reflection of teacher beliefs and classroom practices. Besides, observing their classroom and doing the post interview did support the participants to be aware of their actual practices and reflect towards their beliefs. Therefore, teachers are suggested to upgrade their teaching journey with a self-reflective tool to help them self-assess their practices regarding how they teach in the classrooms. By so doing, teachers’ pedagogical knowledge could on a regular basis be improved. Reflective practice is not as complex as what the teachers think of. It is something that could be done easily if the teachers have a great willing to be better and better in teaching. By doing reflection, the teachers could explore their teaching practices, their beliefs that lead them to teach in certain ways and they could see whether their beliefs are reflected in their teaching practices or not. REFERENCES Abdi, H., & Asadi, B. (2015). A synopsis of researches on teachers’ and students’ beliefs about language learning. International journal on studies in English language and literature (IJSELL), 3(4), 104-114. Ahmed, A. M. (2019). Students’ reflective journaling: an impactful strategy that informs instructional practices in an EFL writing university context in Qatar. Reflective Practice, 20(4), 483–500. https://doi.org/10.1080/14623943.2019.1638246 Amin, M. Z. M., Rashid, R. A. B., & Teh, K. S. M. (2019). Investigating issues and challenges in employing action research for teacher training in Malaysian context. International Journal of Education and Practice, 7(1), 30– 40. https://doi.org/10.18488/journal.61.2019.71.30.40 Basturkmen, H. (2012). Review of research into the correspondence between language teachers’ stated beliefs and practices. System, 40(2), 282–295. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.system.2012.05.001 Reflective Practice as Tools to Explore In-Service Teachers’ Beliefs and… 191 Journal of Applied Linguistics and Literature, Vol. 5(2), 2020 Borg, S. (2003). Teacher cognition in language teaching: A review of research on what language teachers think, know, believe, and do. Language Teaching, 36(2), 81–109. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0261444803001903 Burhan-Horasanlı, E., & Ortaçtepe, D. (2016). Reflective practice-oriented online discussions: A study on EFL teachers’ reflection-on, in and for- action. Teaching and Teacher Education, 59, 372–382. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tate.2016.07.002 Farrell, T. S. C., & Ives, J. (2015). Exploring teacher beliefs and classroom practices through reflective practice: A case study. Language Teaching Research, 19(5), 594–610. https://doi.org/10.1177/1362168814541722 Farrell, T. S., & Lim, P. C. P. (2005). Conceptions of Grammar Teaching: A Case Study of Teachers' Beliefs and Classroom Practices. Tesl-Ej, 9(2), n2. Fraenkel, J. R., & Wallen, N. E. (2017). Data definitions. 310–314. https://doi.org/10.18356/ff5ac838-en Gilakjani, A. P., & Sabouri, N. B. (2017). Teachers’ Beliefs in English Language Teaching and Learning: A Review of the Literature. English Language Teaching, 10(4), 78. https://doi.org/10.5539/elt.v10n4p78 Hamied, F. A. (2018, September 8). Professional development: How Indonesian English-teachers (should) respond to policy changes, Presented at Department of English education, University of Sultan Ageng Tirtayasa, Banten, Indonesia. Hancock, D. R., & Algozzine, R. (2006). Doing case study research: a practical guide for beginning researchers. New York: Teachers College Press. Karnita, R., Woodcock, A., Bell, S., & Super, K. (2017). Approachability as a prerequisite of student reflection. In J. J. Kantola et al. (Eds.), Advances in Human Factors, Business Management, Training and Education, pp. 493-502. Kuzborska, I. (2011). Links between teachers’ beliefs and practices and research on reading. Reading in a Foreign Language, 23(1), 102. Lambert, V. a., & Lambert, C. E. (2013). Qualitative Descriptive Research: An Acceptable Design. Pacific Rim International Journal of Nursing Research, 16(4),255–256. http://antispam.kmutt.ac.th/index.php/PRIJNR/article/download/58 05/5064 Malik, R. S., & Hamied, F. A. (2014). Research methods: A guide for first time researchers. Mertala, P. (2019). Teachers’ beliefs about technology integration in early childhood education: A meta-ethnographical synthesis of qualitative research. Computers in Human Behavior, 101, 334-349 Moeller, A. J., Freeman, D., & Richards, J. C. (1997). Teacher Learning in Language Teaching. The Modern Language Journal, 81(2), 257. Dwi Bayu Saputra; Didi Suherdi; Rojab Siti Rodliyah Journal of Applied Linguistics and Literature, Vol. 5(2), 2020 192 https://doi.org/10.2307/328795 Nguyen, M. H. (2019). English Language Teacher Education. English Language Teacher Education, 169–185. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981- 13-9761-5 Nurfaidah, S., Lengkanawati, N. S., & Sukyadi, D. (2017). Levels of reflection in EFL pre-service teachers’ teaching journal. Indonesian Journal of Applied Linguistics, 7(1), 80-92. DOI: https://doi.org/10.17509/ijal.v7i1.6861 Rahman, A. M. A., & Rashid, R. A. (2017). Explicit and Implicit Grammar Instructions in Higher Learning Institutions. English Language Teaching, 10(10), 92. https://doi.org/10.5539/elt.v10n10p92 Renandya, W. A. (2017, November 24). The three Hs (head, heart, and hands) of an effective English teacher. Presented at Department of English education, Universitas Pendidikan Indonesia, Indonesia. Saputra, B. D. (2019). The implementation of curriculum 2013 : English teachers ’ perceptions on developing lesson plan and teaching materials. Linguists: Journal of Linguitics and Language Teaching, 5(2), 54–67. http://ejournal.iainbengkulu.ac.id/index.php/linguists Schön, D. A (2017). The reflective practitioner: How professionals think in action. London, UK: Routledge Swatevacharkul, R. (2019). Promoting pre-service EFL teacher reflection: An investigation of reflection levels in Thai context. Indonesian Journal of Applied Linguistics, 9(2), 463–471. https://doi.org/10.17509/ijal.v9i2.20244 Thomas, M. (2013). Teachers’ Beliefs about Classroom Teaching – Teachers’ Knowledge and Teaching Approaches. Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences, 89, 31–39. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sbspro.2013.08.805 Toom, A., Husu, J., & Patrikainen, S. (2015). Student teachers’ patterns of reflection in the context of teaching practice. European Journal of Teacher Education, 38(3), 320–340. https://doi.org/10.1080/02619768.2014.943731 Xu, L. (2012). The roles of teachers’ beliefs in the teaching and learning processes. Theory and Practice in Language Studies, 2(7), 1397-1402. Zulfikar, T. (2019). From an active learner to a reflective practitioner: Learning to become a professional indonesian EFL instructor. Qualitative Report, 24(3), 429–440. Zulfikar, T., & Mujiburrahman. (2018). Understanding own teaching: becoming reflective teachers through reflective journals. Reflective Practice, 19(1), 13. https://doi.org/10.1080/14623943.2017.1295933 https://doi.org/10.17509/ijal.v7i1.6861