OPTIMIZATION OF THE PRINCIPAL'S ROLE AS A SUPERVISOR TO IMPROVE THE PERFORMANCE OF TEACHERS IN SURAKARTA

Abstract

One way to develop the ability of teacher resources is through supervision. Supervision is an effort to provide services to teachers in elementary to high schools both individually and in groups. This study aims to determine the extent to which school principals as supervisors improve teacher performance. This research is descriptive qualitative research. Descriptive qualitative research is analyzing and presenting facts systematically so that they are easier to understand and conclude. The subjects of this study were teachers at the Surakarta Islamic Center Jajar Educational Institution. The Jajar Islamic Center Educational Institution is an institution that is oriented towards Da'wah, educational and social activities based on the Al Quran and As-Sunnah according to the understanding of salafush saleh. Data was obtained through observation, interviews and documentation as well as the results of relevant literature. This analysis is divided into several stages data collection, data reduction, data presentation, and conclusion. The results of this study show 1). At the Jajar Islamic Center, the principal as a supervisor conducts training for teachers using teaching demonstrations, workshops, training, observation, individual and group conferences, as well as supervision visits. In addition, supervision is also implemented at the Jaguar Islamic Center with an Islamic Da'wah perspective based on the Al-Qur'an letter A-Nahl verse 125. 2). The principal as a supervisor in improving teacher performance with authority in academic supervision which is the responsibility of the supervisor and is carried out with a clear schedule, both in terms of period and time. In addition, supervisors conduct research, assessment, improvement and development related to the learning process to develop teacher professionalism and provide motivation for teachers to make performance improvements.

Meti Fatimah ¹ , Mustofa ² , Rizkiy Pratama Putra ³ , Mansur Muhammad Abu Zinah ⁴ , Mowafg Masuwd ⁵

¹ Doctor of Islamic Education, Institut Islam Mamba’ul ‘Ulum Surakarta, Indonesia

² Master of Islamic Studies, Institut Islam Mamba’ul ‘Ulum Surakarta, Indonesia

³ Master of Islamic Education, Institut Islam Mamba’ul ‘Ulum Surakarta, Indonesia

⁴ Doctor of Islamic Studies, Yarmouk University, Jordania

⁵ Doctor of Islamic Education, Zawia University, Libya

INTRODUCTION

Education is the main key for a country to excel in global competition. Educational institutions along with global challenges and competition are competing to provide added value from the graduates they foster and have a positive influence on the progress of society's civilization . The policy of building education to prepare quality young generations for the future is the dream of all nations. Because education is one of the main pillars in the formation of human civilization. Likewise, having excellent and highly dedicated teachers to build the future of education is also the hope of a nation. Teachers are people who have the authority and responsibility to guide and foster students both individually and classically at school and outside school . Teachers are leaders, parents and educators, not only skilled in teaching how to answer National Examination questions but themselves and their lives must be an example for their students .

One way to develop the ability of teacher resources is through supervision. Supervision is an effort to provide services to teachers either individually or in groups to improve teaching and curriculum . Important supervision held by school principals aims to improve professional abilities and the educational process in schools so that they can be better and of higher quality. However, the reality in the field of supervision practice which is the forerunner of teacher non-professionalism which further shows the importance of better supervision practices is still low . Therefore, the implementation of supervisory feedback carried out by the principal as a supervisor must create a humane, harmonious relationship and appreciate the personality, character and talents of the teacher . Furthermore, improvement and improvement of principal supervision practices are very important because they make a significant contribution to improving teacher and school performance and growth . According to Senang, the principal as a supervisor serves as a supervisor, controller, coach, director and role model for teachers and their employees . Good school principals must strive to improve teacher performance through a program for building the ability of education personnel. Indeed, supervision should be carried out to ensure quality learning. This means that the success of the implementation of supervision is measured by increasing student learning achievement . Of course, there is a positive direct relationship between teacher performance and student achievement. Education is very important for everyone because education is a necessity, and the importance of supervision is given to lead to better educational outcomes. Research conducted by Vera Rosemary Ankoma-Sey, that the education system in Ghana is full of challenges. These challenges include teacher deficits, inadequate infrastructure, shaky education policies, and the cost of high-quality education . But in fact, if you want to achieve school qualification, both infrastructure, curriculum, teacher quality and school management must be brave enough to face all the challenges that exist, including fighting for good quality education at high costs and leaders who dare to sacrifice for the advancement of an institution.

The achievement of educational goals is very dependent on the skills and leadership policies of a principal as a solution in dealing with the difficulties of teachers. According to Osakwe, principals are required to guide teachers through supervision so that school goals are achieved through effective and efficient teaching and learning . Principals need to provide guidance and direction in the administrative and academic fields, especially improvements in aspects of teaching management carried out by teachers . The principal must foster the ability of every teacher, therefore the principal should carry out supervision effectively. With supervision, the principal should receive feedback, and then guide and move the teacher further towards the desired goal . Thus, supervision is applied to assist in achieving teacher performance, principals can apply supervision techniques through three stages, namely, the planning stage, the implementation stage and the evaluation stage . Teachers can develop all aspects of child development by learning and educational theories, developing curriculum, utilising digital technology, providing facilities for students, communicating well, conducting assessments and being reflective .

Departing from the problems above, and being driven by the spirit of change and the efforts that have been made by the Jajar Islamic Center in the past 4 years, the author is interested in researching supervisors in improving teacher performance. This effort aims to be able to synergize between the principal as a supervisor and the teacher to produce a quality education process and excellent outcomes that are productive, religious and have good character.

METHODOLOGY

This research is qualitative. Sutama stated that qualitative research is research aimed at describing and analyzing natural phenomena, events, and social activities . The subject of this research is Jajar Islamic Center Surakarta. The Jajar Islamic Center is an institution that is oriented towards Da'wah, education, and social activities based on the Al-Quran and As-Sunnah according to the understanding of salafus Sholeh. In this qualitative research, the key instrument in the research is the researcher himself . Through this approach, the researcher describes the conditions that occurred at the time the research was conducted and then examines the causes of the conditions under study. Then, the researcher will explain the monitoring plan, implementing and evaluating the principal of the Jajar Islamic Center. This research was conducted at the Jajar Islamic Center with the informants in this study being the principal and teachers.

The data in this study were obtained through observation, structured interviews and documentation as well as the results of the relevant literature. In analyzing the data, the researcher used Miles and Huberman's analytical model called interactive analysis. This analysis is divided into several stages: data collection, data reduction, data presentation, and conclusion drawing. With interactive analysis techniques, the analysis process starts with data collection and continues until all data is collected .

RESULT AND DISCUSSION

The Importance of Supervision to Improve Teacher Performance at the Jajar Islamic Center

Supervision is a form of service provided to all teachers to produce improvements in terms of teaching, learning methods, and curriculum. Supervision is an effort to provide services so that teachers become more professional in carrying out their duties to serve students . Supervision is expected to improve the quality of education which must start from the aspect of teachers and education personnel . According to Sahertian supervision is an effort to provide services to teachers either individually or in groups to improve teaching and curriculum, to provide services and assistance to improve the quality of teacher teaching in the classroom which in turn improves the quality of student learning . While the main function of holding supervision is for improvement by improving the teaching and learning situation. the principal as an educational leader in the school is a key factor in empowering all available resources in the school . The principal is also the first person who has the most role in improving the quality of education in other words the good or bad about the school is seen from the quality of the principal . Because leadership is the most important factor that determines the running or not of an organization or institution .

The principal and the leadership board of the Jaguar Islami Center have authority in supervision because the teaching and learning process carried out by the teacher is the core of the overall educational process with the teacher as the main role holder. In line with Nurulloh's research, the head of the Madras implements policies in implementing supervision by holding monthly meetings; assigning assignments; Organising training, seminars, and workshops; and providing awards/benefits to outstanding teachers and sanctions for teachers who violate the policies in madrasas . The Jajar Islamic Center implements supervision because it is considered very important and is a coaching activity that is planned to assist teachers and other school staff in carrying out their work effectively. According to Muslim Makin in his research, supervision is very important in helping teachers strengthen their teaching practices by building teacher capacity . Along with increasingly complex educational challenges, quality policies issued by the government, more innovative learning processes, student achievement and school achievement, customer satisfaction both internally and externally, as well as the fulfilment of eight national education standards . Therefore, teachers and education personnel in the educational environment must be able to develop their abilities and potential that can support performance and ease professional tasks. In this case, school principals and teachers are required to be responsible for the quality of learning processes and outcomes to improve the quality of education nationally .

The quality or quality of an institution can be measured by the service process and the ability of educational institutions to synergize all existing potential, to create an advantage that becomes the trademark of an educational institution. So the need for Implementation of Total Quality Management in educational institutions, namely: continuous improvement; determining Quality Standards; cultural change; organizational change and maintaining customer relationships . The more the teacher works enthusiastically, motivated, and dynamically following advances in theory, instruments, technology and government policies, the higher the school's productivity will be . Therefore, human resources in an educational institution are a very important factor in realizing quality education . Organizational culture is usually related to teacher performance so a superior organizational culture will affect teacher performance; On the other hand, educational institutions that are unable to build a better culture result in decreased teacher performance .

The teacher is one of the most decisive points in providing services to an educational institution. Because teachers are important constituents of any educational setting . Teachers as human resources who are in direct contact with users of educational services. Teachers are a key factor in the quality of education and the progress of a nation. A nation that ignores teachers will find it difficult to progress because the quality of the next generation is determined by teachers other than parents and the government. Teachers are the main factor for the success of education, because every educational innovation, especially in curriculum changes and improving human resources always leads to the teacher factor . Human resources are considered to have an increasingly important role in achieving goals, so various experiences and research results in the field of human resources are collected systematically by human resource management .

Teaching is a profession which means the position that requires special skills as a teacher and cannot be done by just anyone outside the field of education. In addition to their expertise, the professional figure of a teacher is shown through their responsibility in carrying out all their services, professionals should be able to assume and carry out their responsibilities as teachers to students, parents, society, nation, state and religion. Professional teachers have social, intellectual, moral and spiritual responsibilities . According to Jackson, the importance of teacher-related policies aimed at increasing educational production . Therefore, the government should not be half-hearted in improving the quality of education by improving teachers in various aspects.

Principal as Supervisor in Improving Teacher Performance

Supervision is any assistance from school leaders, aimed at developing the leadership of teachers and other school personnel in achieving educational goals. An effective monitoring and evaluation model is very important for improving the performance of school principals . Supervision is in the form of encouragement, guidance, and opportunities for the growth of skills and abilities of teachers, such as guidance on implementing reforms in education and teaching, choosing learning tools and better teaching methods, methods of systematic assessment of phases the whole teaching process . Supervision is the supervision of the implementation of educational, and technical activities in schools, not just physical supervision of physical materials. Supervision is the supervision of academic activities in the form of teaching and learning processes, supervision of teachers in teaching, and supervision of situations that cause it .

The Jajar Islamic Center carries out activities as a supervisor by identifying learning weaknesses to be improved, what causes them and why teachers do not succeed in carrying out their duties properly. Based on this, a follow-up was carried out in the form of improvements in the form of coaching. The Jajar Islamic Center is an educational institution that is oriented towards Da'wah, education, and social activities based on the Al-Quran and As-Sunnah according to the understanding of Salafus Shalih. Supervision has been implemented at the Jajar Islamic Center because supervision is coaching, namely coaching to solve problems faced. The guidance carried out by the Jajar Islamic Center by conducting training to teachers on new ways of carrying out the learning process, including teaching demonstrations, workshops, training, observation, individual and group conferences, and visits Supervision.

In addition, supervision is also applied at the Jajar Islamic Center with an Islamic Da'wah perspective. Based on the Qur'an Surah A-Nahl verse 125 which means "Call by you (humanity) to the way of your Lord with wisdom, good advice, and argue with them well...". So the Da'wah here is to encourage people to do good according to the instructions, to call them to do good, and to forbid what is evil so that they get happiness in this world and the hereafter. Therefore, supervision with the perspective of Islamic Da'wah is intended so that supervisors and teachers work together to do good at developing and foster the ability of teachers in the learning process to lead to a better quality of education.

Table 1. Supervision Base

Based on the table above (table 1), it can be seen that the basis of supervision or fostering the perspective of Islamic da'wah is teaching demonstrations, workshops, training, observations, individual and group conferences. As well as supervise visits.

Yudhie Suchyadi in his research stated that there is a positive relationship between the supervision of the principal and teacher job satisfaction, meaning that the higher the supervision of the principal, the higher the job satisfaction of the teacher . The function of supervision or supervision in education is not just a control to see whether all activities have been carried out following the plans or programs that have been prepared, but more than that. Supervision in education contains a broad understanding. Supervised activities include determining the conditions or requirements of personnel and materials needed for the creation of an effective teaching and learning situation, and efforts to fulfill those requirements.

According to Ametembun supervisors have four functions in carrying out supervision including, (1) Supervisor as a researcher, namely examining the actual state of the educational situation. The state of the educational situation can be seen from the conclusions of the processing results obtained, (2) Supervisor as an appraiser, namely assessing how the state of an educational situation is, (3) Supervisor as an improvement, namely making improvements to the situation, (4) Development supervisor, namely developing or improving the situation, so that the already good situation becomes better .

The opinion above is a follow-up action taken by the supervisor at the Jajar Islamic Center related to the implementation of supervision that has been implemented, including conducting research. The research in question is related to the existence of an existing education system at the Jajar Islamic Center, one of which is the implementation of the curriculum because the Jajar Islamic Center is an Islamic-based education, the application of the curriculum is divided into two between the cottage curriculum and the government curriculum. The concept of the Islamic education curriculum is very important to be integrated with the general curriculum which is a government program. The concept of Islamic education is an effort directed at the formation of the child's personality following Islamic teachings or efforts with Islamic teachings, thinking, deciding and acting based on Islamic values .

Then the supervisor as an assessor, namely the Jajar Islamic Center, applies the cottage curriculum, which is a superior program at the Jajar Islamic Center because it is an Islamic-based school. At the Jajar Islamic Center, the supervisor is a leader in a formal educational institution that has an important role in helping the teaching and learning process of teachers and students. The role of the principal as a supervisor is very important to improve the professionalism of teachers and education personnel . During his leadership, supervisors must be able to understand, overcome and correct deficiencies that occur in the school environment as a whole. To improve the quality of education in schools, a supervisor must be able to improve the pedagogic competence of teachers, including education personnel under their authority. The leadership quality of a supervisor can be a positive response from teachers in improving their competence.

Then the supervisor's improvement is that the situation at the Jajar Islamic Center is very conducive with various characteristics of teachers and students, and an established curriculum accompanied by adequate infrastructure makes Jajar Islamic Center maintain the existing culture. In the authority held by the principal as an academic supervisor, quality assurance in the learning process which includes content standards, process standards, evaluation standards, and graduate competency standards is under the authority of the school principal and school supervisor. Supervisors must be able to collaborate with teachers in building an effective learning concept to achieve quality learning outputs. In responding to this, supervisors and teachers must have a commitment to the learning process and the improvement of the quality of learning. Competencies that must be possessed by a teacher are pedagogic competence, personality competence, social competence, and professional competence. These competencies are a set of knowledge, skills, and behaviours that must be possessed, lived, mastered and actualized by the teacher in their duties . At the Jajar Islamic Center, the authority in academic supervision, which is the responsibility of the supervisor is carried out with a clear schedule, both in terms of period and time.

Then the supervisor as a developer, at the Jaguar Islamic Center educational supervision is a series of activities to form teachers to develop their abilities, so in carrying out supervision of teachers it is necessary to hold teacher abilities So that it can be determined which aspects need to be developed and how the right way is in the process of developing them. This means that the principal as a supervisor can provide an assessment of teacher performance in managing the teaching and learning process as a process in managing the appearance of teachers in the teaching and learning process. Teacher performance can be seen and measured based on competency specifications/criteria that every teacher must possess .

However, one thing must be emphasized, that after assessing the teacher's performance it does not mean that the supervision activities are finished, but must be continued with designing and implementing the development of his abilities. Because the quality of education today is a key factor in the welfare of the country. To provide quality education services, the focus of education policy should be sustainable development. To initiate and maintain development goals in the field of education, it is necessary to correctly determine the current situation, identify strong and weak points, analyze the effectiveness of the applied methods and techniques, and guide the process of education and training by experts. All this is made possible by the healthy operation and renovation of educational supervision as a subsystem of the education system.

According to Suhertian, supervision functions to help, give and invite. Meanwhile, when viewed from its function, the role of supervision is visible. A supervisor can act as a Coordinator, as a coordinator, he can coordinate teaching and learning programs, the duties of staff members various activities that vary between teachers. A consultant, As a consultant, he can assist, namely with consulting problems experienced by teachers both individually and in groups. Group Leader, As a group leader, he can lead several staff and teachers in developing the potential of the group when developing curriculum, learning materials and the professional needs of teachers together. Evaluator, As an evaluator he can help teachers in assessing the results and teaching and learning process .

To achieve these educational goals, the role of the principal as a supervisor is very important, because supervision is an activity for the principal's supervisor to improve both physical and non-physical conditions to achieve a better learning process. From the explanation above, it can be understood that supervision is not an order, but is guidance, coaching and direction to teachers.

CONCLUSION

From the results of the study and discussion regarding the principal as a supervisor in improving teacher performance, two conclusions can be drawn. First; Jajar Islamic Center supervisors carry out training for teachers using teaching demonstrations, workshops, training, observation, individual and group conferences, as well as supervision visits. In addition, supervision is also implemented at the Jajar Islamic Center with an Islamic Da'wah perspective. Based on the al-Qur'an letter A-Nahl verse 125 which means "Call you (mankind) to the way of your Lord with wisdom, good advice, and argue with them in a good way ...". This means that supervisors and teachers work together to do good at developing and fostering the ability of teachers in the learning process to lead to better quality education. Second; the principal as a supervisor in improving teacher performance at the Jajar Islamic Center with authority in academic supervision which is the responsibility of the supervisor is carried out with a clear schedule, both in terms of period and time. In addition, supervisors conduct research, assessment, improvement and development related to the learning process to develop teacher professionalism and provide motivation for teachers to make performance improvements.

Acknowledgements

This research was funded by the Islamic Institute of Mamba'ul 'Ulum Surakarta. We would like to thank the Chancellor of the Mamba'ul 'Ulum Islamic Institute Surakarta for providing the research opportunity, as well as all the research teams who helped distribute the questionnaire. Especially to the partner team from Yarmouk University, Jordan, and Zawia University, Libya, hopefully, it can become a scientific work that can be a world reference.

Author Contribution

All authors contributed equally to the main contributor to this paper, some are as chairman, member, financier, article translator, and final editor. All authors read and approved the final paper.

Conflicts of Interest

All authors declare no conflict of interest.