As technology brings both positive and negative impacts on children's characters, the present study argues that watching movies online can provide access to entertainment that contains values of character education as showcased by Disney's animated feature entitled Finding Dory. Through textual analysis, the present study identified all 18 values mandated by the Indonesian Ministry of National Education in this movie, with religious, democratic, and nature loving values that are most rarely and weakly represented and the other 15 values are strongly iterated, even though not very frequently presented, implying that when this movie can be recommended for educative entertainment for children, it is necessary for parents and teachers to balance it with additional emphasize on religious and democratic values to be in line with the culture and the foundation of the nation.

Professional Development (PD) and Professional Learning (PL) are established terms which are used interchangeably but theoretically have notable differences. The former is formally and externally designed while the latter is more informal and self-directed. These differing characteristics have not been observed in the context where PD is normally governed by government policy. As such, there is little to no research on Indonesian English teachers’ practice, preferences and dispositions for PD or PL. A qualitative study was conducted involving four English teachers from Indonesia who demonstrated active participation in professional development and professional learning activities. Developmental interviews were the main source of data. The study showed distinct variance in these teachers’ preference and action for PL through online networks, self-chosen PD and knowledge-sharing interactions with their colleagues. The study observed compliant dispositions and indifferent dispositions towards school PD policy. The study suggests the need to shift compliancy and policy measures from formal school based professional development to include online professional learning opportunities that the teachers initiate, with the integration of both approaches needing further research and development.

This article aims at reporting a result of a small research in Bali about English teachers’ personally-initiated learning (PIL) preferences. The study was done through a small survey involving 156 English teachers and continued with a focus group discussion (FGD). The survey was mainly about English teacher’s PIL preferences, and the aspects which influence their participation. The survey revealed some PIL preferences, namely: web-browsing, reading books, colleagues sharing, reflection from experience and doing research. Following the survey analysis, 2 times of 90 minutes FGD were conducted by involving 15 English teachers. The focus group discussion was conducted to see English teachers’ PIL experiences and opinion regarding the PIL preferences found in the survey. The study found that English teachers’ preferences were influenced by their time, family responsibility, ability, age, effect-relevance and school-culture. Besides that, personal motivation was found to be essential in their professional development participation. Suggestions for school administrators are discussed as it reflects the implication of the findings of the study.

Dr Prestridge's research focuses on the nexus between digital pedagogy, online education and teacher professional development. In drawing these three areas together, she theorises how people interact to learn online and how teachers' instructional practices are shaped through professional learning.

Research on the impacts of Continuing Professional Development (CPD) on perceptions and practices has been conducted separately. This study attempts to investigate a relationship between the involvement of   CPD  and the alignment of teachers’ perceptions and practices about effective English teaching to draw a critical link between the relationship and the alignment. This study involved 6 teachers of English as a Second Language in Indonesia. Qualitative approaches of in-depth interviews and observations were the primary data collection tools. The findings indicate a partial relationship between CPD involvement and the alignment of teacher’s perceptions and practices. Specifically, as part of CPD, teacher’s professional enthusiasm is an indicator for a closer alignment in teacher’s perceptions and practices. Implications drawn from this study suggest that greater conscious raising is required to enhance teachers’ professional enthusiasm since it leads to an alignment between perceptions and practices of quality teaching.

Visual media are still ineffective in covering all learning focus and learning activities to support independent learning. Independent learning guides students to learn the material by themselves, but it is still not supported by the existing visual media. Infographics are a medium that underlies transformative skills in teaching because they can provide a complete learning focus in each material. This study was aimed at developing English teaching media for the 9th grade. A Design and Development research (DnD) proposed by Richey and Klein (2005) was used in this study, including design, development, and evaluation. Initial observations have been carried out at one of the junior high schools in Buleleng, Bali, Indonesia. Data collection was carried out by library research relating to the development of infographics and the nature of independent learning, document analysis by doing syllabus analysis, and expert judgment. The results obtained from the research are infographics are considered to be very good as a medium for teaching English for independent learning. This research implies that teachers' technology-based teaching skills can be assisted by developing this infographic teaching media.

Needs analysis is vital in assessment instrument development because assessment is of paramount importance in teaching and learning. The phenomena of technology developments influence how assessment instruments must be developed to achieve the learning objectives and outcomes. The present study aimed at conducting a needs analysis of literacy assessment using blended learning for beginner EFL learners in Bali, Indonesia. The survey-style research was carried out involving 17 English teachers from 12 public junior high schools. A questionnaire, in-depth interviews, and a focused group discussion were used to collect the data. The data were descriptively analyzed using both quantitative and qualitative methods. The study results revealed that the needs identified in assessment developments consist of the target needs that cover the necessities of assessments, including the assessment of learning, as learning, assessment for learning, wants and lacks. In addition, the learner needs in the form of authentic materials, technology-based materials, skills-based, and language inputs are all needed in developing instrument assessments. The activities and procedures for conducting assessments in the form of pedagogical and real-life tasks and procedures are required, in addition to the roles of the students as knowledge seekers, problem solvers, collaborators, critical thinkers, and creators. The identified needs were then used as the basis for the framework design. The needs analysis results conducted in this study are expected to inspire teachers in developing research-based assessment instruments in EFL instructions.

This study aims to describe and compare the students’ reading competencies on high order items across classes, text genres, and reading indicators in SMPN 1 Ubud. The design implemented was descriptive and comparative research. The population of this research was the seventh grade students of SMPN 1 Ubud and the samples were four intact classes which determined through Cluster Random Sampling. The data were gathered by using Reading Competency Test. The collected data were then analysed descriptively and then inferentially by implementing a parametric statistics, namely: 1) central tendency measures, 2) measures of dispersion, and 3) simultaneous comparison. The result shows the students’ reading competency categorized as poor reading competency and there was not significance different in students’ reading competencies on high order thinking items across classes, text genres, and reading indicators. Poor reading competencies implies both of the students and EFL teachers to train intensively and extensively in reading process in order to have ability in determining the reading indicators of both descriptive and recount texts.