Tuesday, December 30, 2014 was a precious day for Dr. Sahraini, the lecturer of State Islamic Institute of Palopo, South Sulawesi. She passed her open dissertation defense for doctoral promotion in YSU Graduate School.

Her dissertation entitled “Model Evaluasi Internal Kompetensi Guru Bahasa Inggris (Model_EIKGBI) SMA (An Internal Evaluation Model for High School English Teacher Comopetencies)” was defended before the board of examiners consisting of Prof. Kumaidi, Ph.D. and Prof. Djemari Mardapi, Ph.D.

The model is basically developed because teacher evaluation models are variedly implemented among countries. Indonesian Government continuously improve the teacher performance and competencies evaluation which is reflected in the portfolio assessment known as Teacher Certification. However, this assessment remains controversial.

It is hoped that this evaluation model will be able to provide effective evaluation for high school English teachers competencies as well as to identify high school teachers’ strengths and weaknesses during the English teaching and learning process.

The model is also a modification of the previous Teacher Performance Evaluation (TPE) model. The former consists of formative and summative evaluations where as the later include 4 stages namely planning, classroom observation, discussion, and reflection, thus it does not differentiate both formative and summative evaluations.

This instrument has a construct validity level proven by Exploratory Factor Analysis (total item correlation index value < 0.3). It is also considered reliable proven by its Genova coefficient value which is bigger than 0.70).

It consists of three dimensions, namely the teachers’ ability to plan English teaching and learning activities, the teachers’ ability to conduct effective English teaching and learning processes, and the teachers’ ability to assess students’ performances.

The board of examiners consisting of Prof. Dr. Zuhdan Kun Prasetyo, M.Ed. (chairman/examiner), Prof. Sugirin, Ph.D. (secretary/examiner), Prof. Kumaidi, Ph.D. (the first examiner), dan Prof. Djemari Mardapi, Ph.D. (examiner) and two promotors, namely Prof. Suwarsih Madya, Ph.D. and Prof. Dr. Badrun Kartowagiran, stated that Sahraini had successfully defended her dissertation. Therefore, she added the list of graduates of the doctoral program in Educational Research and Evaluation.

“This is more than just a degree. The most important thing is what you can contribute to the education improvement by your doctoral degree. The struggle is still long way to go and Palopo is waiting for you to improve its academic atmosphere,” said Prof. Suwarsih Madya, Ph.D., the Vice Rector IV of Yogyakarta State University, in her speech.

Later on, Sahraini will write a book based on her research findings, so that it will be available for the public and academic communities.