60th TEFLIN International Conference

There have been a lot of complaints about the English proficiency of high school or university graduates in Indonesia and other parts of the world and teachers are always considered as the ones who should be responsible for this. Even though the government has worked hard to improve the quality of teacher and teacher education in general, this effort is often not followed by evaluations through in-depth and integrated studies. As a result, improvements that have been made do not achieve their goals.

As we move from a period of “teacher training,” characterized by approaches that view teacher preparation as familiarizing student teachers with techniques and skills to apply in the classroom, to “teacher education,” characterized by approaches that involve teachers in developing theories of teaching, understanding the nature of teacher decision making, and strategies for critical self-awareness and self-evaluation, it is time for us to reassess current practices and issues in teacher training education and development.

An overview of recent studies shows that there has been less emphasis on prescriptions and top-down directives and more emphasis on an inquiry-based and discovery-oriented approach to teacher training and education. In addition, there seems to be an agreement that teachers and student teachers need to adopt a research orientation to their own classrooms and teaching to improve themselves as teachers.

In this conference, we will invite a representative group of teacher educators from different parts of the world and teachers themselves to address major issues in second/foreign language teacher education, in order to provide a focused exploration of issues of both content and process in teacher education, so that we can improve the quality of teacher education and teachers to meet international standards.

Aims of the Event

In response to the reality and challenges in Teacher Education and Preparation in Indonesia and other parts of the world, the TEFLIN International Conference 2013 is organized to achieve the following aims:

1.	Sharing the knowledge and understanding in the quality of English learning and teaching in Indonesia to the conference participants in its effort to increase the competitive power of Indonesian man power;
2.	Digging up information related to the recent issues and research findings related to the quality of teacher education and preparation in Indonesia;
3.	Increasing professionalism in teacher education to improve the quality of English teachers in Indonesia;
4.	Compelling the stake holders to apply internal and external quality assurance in the preparation and education of English teachers.

This conference is expected to address a range of diverse issues and practices, to document successful practices in many different kinds of teacher education and development programs and to contribute new ideas to both the theory and practice in those areas that are suitable not only for the Indonesian context but also for other teaching contexts around the world.