Examining the Predictors of Innovative Teaching Practices among Indonesian Lecturers

Innovative teaching

As mentioned earlier, innovative teaching refers to the teacher's willingness to seek out different strategies, methods, approaches, and evaluation criteria in teaching practice (Gilbert et al., 2021; Jaskyte et al., 2009). Some literature stressed the learning outcome of innovative teaching, e.g., cognitive and affective skills of students (Zhu et al., 2013). In spite of the innovative teaching described in diverse concepts, most of the literature agrees on the fact that innovative teaching refers to the use of new ideas, strategies, methods, approaches, and criteria of evaluation by teachers to identify the individual differences of students. Innovative teaching aims at reconciling students' talent and stimulate their learning interest to promote effective learning.

Scholars suggest at least five aspects of innovative teaching (Alvarez-Bell et al., 2017; Brouwer & Korthagen, 2005; Cao et al., 2020; Chen, 2009; Rafsanjani et al., 2021; Zhu et al., 2013). First, innovative thoughts, which refer to the ability to think out of the box to cope with problems, looking around for alternative solutions, and have a sense of sensitivity in dealing with something (Sternberg & Lubart, 1998). Innovative thoughts also refer to teachers' ability to integrate the rising of teaching and curriculum development trends and implementing it with an open mind (Zhu et al., 2013).

Second, innovative teaching content. It describes teachers' ability to adjust the teaching content to their students' characters (Chen, 2009). Furthermore, teachers can include information and material from daily life in teaching content to produce course material that attracts students' interest and fits their personality (Zhu et al., 2013; Zhu & Wang, 2014). In sum, teachers should innovate in compiling interesting course content based on students' characteristics to trigger their critical thinking skills and imagination.

Third, teaching methods refer to organized teaching and learning activities by teacher and students' endeavor to achieve educational goals (Skutil et al., 2016). Teaching methods also relate to standards, principles, and procedures to be executed by teachers to attain learning objectives (Liu & Shi, 2007). How to choose a teaching method depends on the educational philosophy of individual teachers, the number of learners, subject area(s), the academic ability of learners, and the school mission statement (Dorgu, 2015; Gotz et al., 2005; Skutil et al., 2016). So, an innovative teacher must be able to choose the teaching methods that best suits the situation and conditions he/she works in. This idea is supported by modern pedagogy that suggests every teacher should master a wide range of teaching methods, both diversified and flexible (Skutil et al., 2016).

Fourth, innovative teaching resources. They allude to teacher's skill to use and combine all the available resources, such as the library, internet, and social resources, into teaching resources (Chen, 2009). Teachers are expected to provide a variety of teaching aids and equipment to promote students' interests and stimulate divergent learning activities (Feldhusen & Kolloff, 1978; Williamson, 2009; Zhu et al., 2013).

Finally, innovative evaluation refers to teachers' ability to use a wide range of evaluation and assessment methods, so that they help students to improve their comprehension, instead of judging their academic skills (Beghetto, 2005). Teachers should be able to establish a safe atmosphere in the classroom and ensure the latitude for students to explore their own potential (Ellis & Barrs, 2008), as well as reward curiosity and exploration (Beghetto, 2005). They also should address students' mistakes positively, so that they become aware of their weaknesses and can achieve the learning objectives in a steady environment.

The competencies for innovative teaching

The term competency refers to the combination of knowledge, skills, individual characteristics, motivation, and attitudes that make it possible for a person to act effectively and efficiently in a specific circumstance (Koster et al., 2005; Poole et al., 1998; Spencer & Spencer, 1993). Stoof et al. (2000) have divided all aspects of competency into task characteristics (knowledge and skills) and personal characteristics (motivation and attitudes). For our research purpose, exploring the competencies related to innovative teaching, we decided to focus on task characteristics, as personal characteristics are somehow essential for a person do his/her jobs properly, but they are not very tangible (Parry, 1996; Spencer & Spencer, 1993). Besides, motives and attitudes can be expressed in skills (Koster et al., 2005).

Previous studies have showed that there are major factors associated to teachers' competencies -referred to as pedagogical skills-, namely: problem-solving, school-family and society relationship, knowing the student, understanding the culture, monitoring and evaluation, knowledge of curriculum and content, communication, teamwork, emotional skills, ICT, and research competency (Cairney, 2000; Ferrari et al., 2009; Hannon, 2009; Karwowski et al., 2007; Koster et al., 2005; Runco, 2003; Sahin & Thompson, 2006; Sternberg & Lubart, 1999; Zhu et al., 2013). According to the literature review in the previous studies, all factors related to the teachers' competencies can be categorized into four general competencies: learning competency, social competency, educational or pedagogical competency, and technological competency (Zhu et al., 2013).

Learning competency is the readiness of teachers to learn how to teach with innovative teaching to increase teaching effectiveness (Chen, 2009). It is essential for innovation (Könings et al., 2007). Teachers must be aware that they are required to always learn about innovative teaching. They are expected to know how to find out current learning materials, different methods and strategies, and ways to overcome any problems that arise during the teaching and learning process. Teachers also should keep pace with scientific advancements through continuing professional development (CPD) (Pantic & Wubbels, 2010).

Social competency is the ability to effectively deal with social interaction (Orpinas, 2010). It also refers to teachers' ability to build positive communication and relationships with students regardless of their backgrounds, and to solve interpersonal conflicts (Koster et al., 2005; Ma, 2012; Pantic & Wubbels, 2010). There are three skills related to social competence. First, verbal communication skills, e.g., initiate a conversation and express ideas or feeling without blaming. Second, listening skills, e.g., pay attention and listening to others. Last, friendliness and respect skills, e.g., give compliments to others (Orpinas, 2010).

These skills are essential for teachers. Social sensitivity skills, such as empathic communication, strengthen social ties, which leads to increase collaboration with others (Yams, 2017) and promote an atmosphere of mutual trust, essential to encourage innovation (Akhavan & Mahdi Hosseini, 2016).

This finding shows that social competency is significantly related to academic performance (Eisenberg et al., 2010; Zorza et al., 2013), and correlated with the ability of task completion (Butterworth & Strauch, 1994). Consequently, it can be stated that social competency plays a vital role as a predictor of teaching performance. Thus, a teacher with good social skills will make it easier for them to collaborate with their colleagues, and eventually increase the opportunities to create teaching innovations.

Third, educational or pedagogical competency refers to teachers' ability to use combined, coordinated and synergistic tangible and intangible resources to promote the learning process in the best way (Madhavaram & Laverie, 2010; Ryegârd et al., 2010). The components of pedagogical competency are: content knowledge, knowledge of pedagogical approaches, course management capability, classroom management capability, and student management capability (Madhavaram & Laverie, 2010). Pedagogical competency is essential for teachers as it integrates all components and resources to promote teaching effectiveness and achieve the learning objectives (Izmirli & Kurt, 2009; Zhang et al., 2020).

Liakopoulou (2011) found that pedagogical competence is crucial and becomes a prerequisite for entering the teaching profession. Furthermore, the knowledge field is essential for teachers to play their primary role (Meijer et al., 2001; Zhang et al., 2020), i.e., to facilitate students' learning by communicating information to them and creating situations in which students can learn effectively (Havighurst, 2018). The findings show that pedagogical competency is a crucial predictor of a teacher's teaching performance. It can be inferred that if a teacher has a good pedagogical competence, it would be easier for them to adapt themselves to the development of science and innovate in teaching performance.

Finally, technological competency refers to a combination of skills that reflects the ability to find and use digital information, technology tools, online collaboration, and explore new digital applications (King et al., 2017). Other scholars define technological competency as computer literacy, digital literacy, and information literacy. It refers to one's ability to use technological tools, navigate the online resources to collect information, recognize when data is required, to find specific data, and communicate with others (Bulger et al., 2014; Creighton et al., 2006; King et al., 2017; Lau, 2008).

Technological competence is an essential skill for teachers because technology can provide teachers with tools to create and develop new teaching methods (Ferrari et al., 2009), and closely relates to the successful innovative performance (Cohen & Levinthal, 1990). Moreover, technological competence enables an institution or person to adapt, combine, and re-configure their skills, knowledge, and capabilities to make some innovations (Bolívar-Ramos et al., 2012). So, these findings show that technological competency is crucial for teaching innovation performance.

Current Study

The literature reviewed states that innovative teaching is crucial to achieve learning objectives. However, based on the available research and literature, little is known about critical competencies for innovative teaching. This study tries to fill the gap by exploring the crucial competencies or skills related to innovative teaching, based on the arguments proposed in the literature review.

Figure 1: Research Model

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Research Design

This study uses causal design model to find out the causal explanation between the endogen and exogen variables (Trochim, 2001). The research model was determined by literature review.

Participants

The research participants were 274 lecturers from nineteen universities in Indonesia who were chosen randomly. We applied an online questionnaire to reach the participants who represent our population (Indonesian lecturers). The percentage distribution of men and women were respectively 56 % male and 44 % female participants. Most of them hold a master's degree (83 %), and the others a doctor's degree (17 %). The respondents characteristics can be seen in table 1.

Table 1: Respondents characteristics (N = 274)

Source: Authors' own elaboration.

Data Collection

We adapted the research tools used in the literature reviewed. A translator helped us to translate instrument into Indonesian to suit the context of our respondents. Then, a group of experts reviewed the questionnaire items to ensure that the respondents understood them properly.

Innovative teaching. We adapted six items from the innovative behaviour scale (de Jong & Kemp, 2003) to measure the innovative teaching variable (e.g., "I like to try out new teaching methods", "In my work, I often come up with ideas"). The instrument was measured on a 5-point Likert scale, ranging from Strongly disagree (1) to Strongly agree (5). The loading factors of all items were calculated as > 0.8 and the cross loading factors as > 0.8. The Cronbach's alpha coefficient of the instruments was calculated as 0.854.

The competencies. We also adopted the Core Competencies for Innovative Teaching Scale (Zhu et al., 2013) to measure four exogenous variables. We used five items to measure learning competency (e.g., "I actively learn new things related to new teaching concepts, new methods, etc.", "As a teacher, I know how to learn to improve my teaching"), six items to measure social competency (e.g., "I am willing to share teaching problems with others", "I have the knowledge on how to cooperate with others"), four items to measure technological competency (e.g., "I am willing to integrate modern multimedia technology into the teaching practice", "I know the recent development of teaching technology"), and five items to measure pedagogical competency (e.g., "I have sufficient knowledge about the subjects that I teach", "I am capable of mobilizing students' learning enthusiasm and interests in the class").

All the items were measured on 5-point Likert scale ranging from Strongly disagree (1) to Strongly agree (5). The loading factors of all items were calculated as > 0.7 and the cross loading as > 0.8. The Cronbach's alpha coefficient of the instruments was calculated for each competency variables: 0.838 for learning competency, 0.833 for social competency, 0.866 for technical competency, and 0.753 for pedagogical competency.

Data Collection

We used an online questionnaire to reach the participants. We sent e-mail messages to respondents based on data we obtained from the relevant ministries (Ministry of Education and Culture of the Republic of Indonesia). In the message, we asked the respondents whether they were willing to participate in this research. We explained the research objectives, the significance of the study and the variables to be investigated. If they wanted to be part of the study, they were invited to fill out a questionnaire on the link provided. On the contrary, if they did not, they could ignore the e-mail message.

Data Analysis

We used structural equation modelling (SEM) in WarpPLS 6.0 to examine our research model. Before running the research model, we examined the outliers and removed them from the dataset. We also made sure that the research model proposed is robust (APC < .001; ARS < .001, AVIF = 2.261, GoF = .638) (Solimun & Nurjannah, 2017).

Findings

We ran the research model using WarpPLS to examine all paths simultaneously. The result (figure 2) shows that all independent variables have a positive and significant effect on dependent variables (p < .01). The result confirmed our hypothesis that learning competency (LC), social competency (SC), technological competency (TC), and pedagogical competency (PC) have a significant effect on the innovative teaching (IT) of the lecturer.

Figure 2: Structural model with standardized path coefficient

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