On Wednesday (June 17th, 2015) the YSU Faculty of Education held a workshop on comparative research presenting Prof. Lynn Paine, Ph.D. from Michigan State University. The workshop was attended by lecturers at the faculty.
Lynn Paine focuses on international comparative research and educational sociology. She has been searching for references in China, Japan, UK, and some other countries to compare the education systems in different countries. In her lecture, Lynn explained the significant role of teachers for the future of a nation. Teachers are not only teaching the students to write essays or get involved in academic activities, but also how to see the world through a wider context. She stated that globalisation is an important aspect in education, especially to generate ideas to implement in classroom to face the globalisation.
During the discussion, the Lynn and the workshop participants discussed the significant difference for the interest of fresh graduates to work as teachers. In US, there is a declining trend for fresh graduates’ interest to work as teachers, whereas in Indonesia the number of fresh graduates entering the teaching profession at schools has been increasing. The increase is due to the increasing salary offerred by the government compared to the salary offerred ten years ago. However, problems arise in terms of teacher quality, competence, and capacity and the uneven distribution of the teachers all across Indonesia because the teachers are mostly concentrated in Java and the rest are spread throughout the archipelago.
This workshop on education was part of the academic activities joined by 19 Michigan State University students at Yogyakarta State University.