Exploring Teacher Professional Development’s Perceptions of English Secondary School Teachers

Teacher perceptions in Teacher Professional Development are very important to make teachers more skilled in teaching, managing classes, and relating to school affairs. The experience gained from Teacher Professional Development will have a big impact on any teacher's activities, it's all because of the useful activities that have been designed in Teacher Professional Development. This study aims to find out teachers' perceptions of Teacher Professional Development and how teachers conduct during the COVID-19 pandemic. This research uses descriptive research in the qualitative method. The participants of this research were three junior high school English teachers from various places who had participated in Teacher Professional Developments, the schools were SMP Muhammadiyah 5 Yogyakarta, SMP Negeri 1, 3 and 5 in Selakau, West Kalimantan. Data was collected through an Interview. Findings from this research show that there are three perceptions of a teacher towards Teacher Professional Development (TPD) such as TPD can help teachers to assist students in learning language learning theories, TPD is very helpful for developing teachers' abilities and creativity and TPD can make teachers control the classroom situation by both professionally. Furthermore, there are two ways for teachers to participate in a certain Teacher Professional Development during the COVID-19 pandemic, TPD is done online and TPD assignments are given online. This research concludes that every teacher must participate in Teacher Professional Development because this activity brings many benefits to teachers in teaching and managing school affairs.


INTRODUCTION
Teacher Professional Development is very important to develop the quality of teacher teaching. Good teachers will continue to think about their quality as teachers, because what they teach are students who have a bright future. Teaching is part of the learning process, an attempt to teach students. This understanding involves the process of selecting, deciding, and developing methods to achieve stated learning outcomes (Syaifin & Ma'ruf, 2021). To improve this quality, teachers also participate in various activities included in Teacher Professional Development. This quality improvement will help teachers in creating materials, teaching, using technology in the classroom, leadership, school administration and many more benefits that will be obtained. Middle school teachers often participate in Teacher Professional Development. The perception of teachers, especially junior high school teachers in Teacher Professional Development is very important to improve the quality of Teacher Professional Developments activities in the future because many teachers still feel lacking in those activities. There are many complaints from teachers who have carried out those activities, so it is very important to examine the perceptions of junior high school teachers regarding Teacher Professional Development.
The achievement of quality education is strongly influenced by the performance of teachers in carrying out their duties, and teacher performance is an important prerequisite for educational success (Putri & Imayati, 2017). In improving teacher performance, teachers will participate in various programs provided by the government in Teacher Professional Development. Activities or programs in Teacher Professional Development that are commonly followed by teachers are Improvement of Teacher Education Qualifications, Equalization and Certification, Competency-Based Integrated Teacher Training Programs, Education Supervision Programs, MGMP Empowerment Programs, Teacher Symposiums, Reading and Writing Scientific Paper Journals, Participating in Scientific Meetings , Conduct Classroom Action Research, Internships, and much more. These programs are the programs mentioned by the Directorate General of Primary and Secondary Education, Ministry of National Education (2005). Qualification is a special education to obtain an expertise needed to obtain something. This must be owned by an educator / teacher because of this academic qualification as an agent of learning to be physically and mentally healthy and has the ability to realize national education. Teacher Certification is a process of granting educator certificates to teachers who have met professional standards or the eligibility of a teacher in Teaching and Learning Activities in schools. The teacher training program is a program carried out by educators with the aim of becoming more professional, so as to maximize the learning process in the classroom. The training program carried out usually includes lesson planning techniques and how to conduct effective learning. Educational supervision is coaching in the form of guidance or guidance towards improving the educational situation in general and improving the quality of teaching and learning and learning DOI: 10.18196/umygrace.v2i1.413 (University of Muhammadiyah Yogyakarta Undergraduate Conference) Social Humanities, Religious Studies and Law_Volume 2 Issue 1 (2022) "Strengthening Youth Potential for Sustainable Innovation" 46 in particular. The Subject Teacher Conference (MGMP) as an association or association of teachers plays a strategic role in improving and strengthening teacher competence through discussion and training. Its main role is to facilitate teachers in the same field of study in exchanging opinions and experiences. The Symposium of Teachers and Education Personnel at the national level is a useful facility for expressing ideas, ideas and seeking solutions to strategic issues or problems regarding education by involving elements of higher education experts, education practitioners, education observers, educational NGOs, as well as teachers and education personnel who excel at the national level. Classroom Action Research is research conducted in the classroom by using an action to improve the quality of the teaching and learning process in order to obtain better results than before.
There are still a lot of teachers who cannot see the benefits of participating in all these programs for several reasons, especially during the past COVID-19 pandemic. Teachers have some problems when running TPD programs during a pandemic, so it's not surprising that teachers experience a decline in performance when teaching because of the problems they get in TPD programs that are provided and facilitated by the government. It is not only the teaching performance of students that has decreased. It could also be that teacher performance is not optimal which results in teachers not having time to make Learning Implementation Plans, ignoring teacher administrative tasks, giving assignments to students without a synchronous or face-toface process, teaching materials are not interesting, and learning assessments are not optimal (Putri & Imayati, 2017).
The purpose of this research is to find out the perceptions of junior high school teachers about Teacher Professional Development that teachers have participated in and also how junior high school teachers have carried out or participated in the TPD program during the COVID-19 pandemic. This research is expected to be useful for improving Teacher Professional Development programs and in the future. The research question of this research is as follows: • What are English secondary school teachers' perception about Teachers Professional Development? • How do teachers conducts Teacher Professional Development duri COVID-19 Pandemic?
The perception of teachers in implementing Teacher Professional Development will affect the performance of teachers in teaching students as well as managing school administration, therefore it is important to know this. Knowing how teachers conduct Teacher Professional Development during the COVID-19 pandemic is also important to know what problems they face and how to solve them. That's because during the pandemic, various fields experienced many problems, so they had to keep racking their brains so that these fields continued to run smoothly without such big obstacles. Therefore, research needs to be done to analyze these two things. That's because at this time, researchers have not found research that explains specifically regarding the perception of junior high school teachers on TPD and how teachers do TPD in the specific era of the COVID-19 pandemic. The teaching profession is teaching students to help realize the future that students aspire to, therefore the quality of teachers needs to be improved with various Teacher Professional Development activities or programs that are available and provided by the government. Increasing the quality of educators will encourage an increase in the quality of good education as well, the results will also be good, because the results are not only enjoyed by teachers and students, but the people who expect the new generation to turn this era into their golden era.

Literature Review
The literature that the researcher uses is obtained through Google Scholar, and all of it is related to Teacher Professional Development. All literature that researchers use is still relevant and up-to-date because researchers are looking for literature for a maximum of under 5 years. Researchers carefully select and review the literature that will be used. The following is a literature review that the researchers made: The first study analyzed in this paper is directed by Mohammadi and Moradi entitled Exploring Change in EFL Teachers' Perceptions of Profesional Development. This exploratory review pointed toward breaking down educators insights about Continuous Profesional Development (CPD) to know is that action is welcome an effect on classroom, influence in understudies learning, and effect on instructive ramifications. It was directed at Iran, examining irregular 86 non-native English educators from private language school. The instructors has an involvement with training low-middle to propel levels. The primary movement or methodology is meeting 43 English educators and inspected the important Profesional Development (PD) course book and exercises. The meeting had 7 inquiries to gather quantitative information. And afterward for qualitative information is gathered by means of semiorganized interview. The strategy have a pre-review and post-review to get the data. The outcome had 12 point, that showed an examination about view of non-native EFL instructors towards CPD. (1) The distinctions about educators thinking about the fundamental motivations to seek after PD when going to the studio, (2) focusing on the main explanations behind proceeding with PD, (3) The Differences Between Teachers Perceptions about Effective Types of CPD Before and After Attending the Workshops, The second study analyzed in this paper is directed by Evisen entitled Turkish in-service and pre-service EFL teachers' views on profesional development and related activities. This exploratory review pointed toward breaking down present in-service and pre-service teachers' perceptions of some Profesional Development activities and to investigate whether differences exist between these two groups regarding their attitudes, beliefs, and perceptions. It was directed at Gaziantep University School of Foreign Language. This research had a 12 participant and divided into 2 groups. This research had a qualitative method and quantitative method. The data collected via emails were scrutinized by content analysis. The outcome showed that both groups agree that PD is good as long as after that they continue doing their job. Both groups also agree that PD is a lifelong process or on going process. For workshops, both groups see that as a positive point for collaboration and gaining new knowledge. For Self monitoring, they think and feel that this activity is an aspect to help them evaluating them self. For Teacher support groups, both groups agree that they are very experienced than they thought, so they get more motivated and get more experiences from them. Teaching journals also shown some positive aspect. For Peer observation are also appreciated by participants, because they feel they are not alone in the problem they have. Teacher portfolios are also welcomed. Peer coaching is good to, because it is another option to evaluate teachers and they also feel safety. The in-service and pre-service state that action research it can help teachers overcome their problem in class and make them familiar with scientific thing. And for the last is, all of the participant is have a willingness to continue to develop professionally. (Evişen, 2021) The next journal was entitled EFL teachers' online teacher professional development experiences amidst the COVID-19 pandemic: Practices and perceptions by Arief Eko Priyo Atmojo (2021). The article aimed at investigating the EFL teachers' practices and perceptions of online teacher professional development (OTPD) experiences to improve their competencies for teaching online language learning amidst the COVID-19 pandemic. Total of the volunteer are 42 EFL teachers that became the participants through invitation. It was found that were 50 invitation but the 8 invitations are rejected. All participants were requested to give responses on a questionnaire. Their teaching experiences range from 1 to 30 years. Also, the investigation took place in UIN Raden Mas Said Surakarta, Indonesia. The data were collected through participants that requested to give responses on a questionnaire. It found in data that eight of the 42 participants were engaged with a semistructured interview independently since they gave important data in their responses toward the survey which were achievable for additional request. The interview data analysis results were obtained acquired in the wake of making examination, amendment, and mix to find key topics. The consequences of survey and interview information examination were at last shown and talked about in subtleties to give responds to on each exploration question as follows: (1) How do Indonesian EFL teachers engage themselves in OTPD to improve their competencies for teaching online language learning amidst the COVID-19 pandemic? (2) How do Indonesian EFL teachers perceive their OTPD experiences in improving their competencies for teaching online language learning amidst the COVID19 pandemic? Lastly, the author also gives a recommendation for teacher to engage themselves in PD. It because, some of EFL teachers still lack competence in teaching online language learning. (Atmojo, 2021) The last journal entitled PRIMARY ENGLISH TEACHERS PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT DURING COVID19 PANDEMIC: A PRELIMINARY RESEARCH and it's conducted by Wiputra Cendana and Yonathan Winardi. This study was aimed to investigating professional development (PD) for language teachers during pandemic. It took place in Universitas Pelita Harapan, Indonesia 2021. During data collection, only 7 participants were willing to participate in this research by filling out the open-ended questionnaire consisting of 7 main questions related to the aims of this research. With 1 male and 6 female teachers participating at the end of July 2020. The result showed that in first table, primary English teachers have done various types usually done so far, the world of English language teaching. More than 50% teacher are answer to join conference about English teaching during pandemic. In the second table, it tends to be surely known that beginner teachers typically are as yet adjusting to the new showing climate so more private PD ways are taken. meanwhile, more senior teachers who are now getting along and encountering coordinated effort with other essential educators during numerous occasions in school. And in third table, it is shown in the table that the primary English teachers also expect that the school could provide applicable technology training and further anticipation strategy in delivering the learning material to the students. (Cendana & Winardi, 2021)  The following is the theoretical framework of the study that briefly describes the dependent and independent variables that the researchers have compiled: 1Theoretical Framework

Method
The method that is being used in this research is descriptive research in qualitative method. This approach was selected because it is the most suitable approach to be used. The participants of this study were 5 teachers from various regions in Indonesia. This research data was collected by interviewing each junior high school teacher with 10 questions related to Teacher Professional Development. The quality of the data of the test researchers by continuously thinking about good questions and further information can be explored. Before interviewing teachers, the researchers ensured that the interview participants must have participated in previous Teacher Professional Development programs or activities. The method we use to draw conclusions is to discuss to decide which conclusions are appropriate to be presented in this paper.

Result and Discussion
Analyzing the data collected from interviews, the researchers got some teachers' perceptions about Teacher Professional Development and how they carried it out during the COVID-19 pandemic. Qualitative data from the interviews were analyzed in a typical way and conventional qualitative data analysis. The researcher used the recording feature of the android phone to record and then transcribe the recording of each interview to digest more clear and familiar information to be used as research data. Of course, the researchers asked the high school teachers for permission to record the interviews on the grounds that the researchers could review the results of the interviews while working on the article. When the data has been analyzed, the researchers also discuss the data collected from each interview to ensure that each researcher understands the data that has been collected and analyzed. After discussing, the researchers immediately concluded the data that had been analyzed and interpreted it. The following is a teacher's perception of Teacher Professional Development and how teachers carry out Teacher Professional Development programs or activities during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The first participant is a junior high school teacher who teaches English in Yogyakarta who has taught about 20 years in one school. These participants have participated in various Teacher Professional Development programs and activities, such as Subject Teacher Consultations or in Indonesia it is commonly abbreviated as MGMP, Teacher Professional Training Education or in Indonesia it is commonly abbreviated as PLPG, Certification, Supervision and many more. According to him, the existing activities or programs are very helpful for teachers. The participant also said that he got a lot of teaching knowledge from the program or activity such as controlling the class, making teaching materials that please students, being able to easily overcome the obstacles that occur in the classroom. That's because he gains experience and knowledge from Teacher Professional Development programs or activities.

In my opinion, various Teacher Professional Developments are able to develop and improve the teaching skills of teachers in guiding students with interesting teaching materials that teachers make based on the Teacher Professional Development activities and programs they have participated in. (Participant 1)
According to his experience, he usually follows the Teacher Professional Development programs online or synchronously and asynchronously. It can use an online meeting application, and there are also tasks to be done. Sometimes the online meetings he attends start at night until a bit midnight. The obstacle he experienced when running these programs was the high cost of participating in some programs, fortunately he was funded by the government to participate in them, and the deadline for his assignments was too short. His perception of Teacher Professional Development is very good because in this program teachers are taught to implement a learning system where the system is very appropriate to the conditions of education today. Theory is important, but practice is also important because in this system students learn how to solve problems. It is in accordance with today's thought patterns so that it can enter the minds or brains of students. According to this participant, up-to-date education will be easier for students to understand than old-fashioned teaching patterns. He got this opinion after he joined the Teacher Professional Development programs or activities.
The second participant is a female junior high school teacher who teaches English at SMP Negeri 5 Selakau, West Kalimantan. She's been teaching there for 12 years. She did not attend Teacher Professional Education but she plans to participate if she is funded by the government. She is most active in participating in the MGMP, where she discusses learning, problems, and making unique learning media. If there are problems in teaching, this participant will ask other teachers who attend the MGMP as well to ask for solutions or suggestions or can also be discussed in the forum. The problem with her participating in the Teacher Professional Development program is that the distance is too far to get to the MGMP meeting place. She had to pass through 3 sub-districts to get to the meeting place. The benefit she gets from the Teacher Professional Development program is that this participant can vary the classes he teaches with various learning media. She often uses Canva, PowerPoint, Quizziz and more when teaching the classes he teaches. During the pandemic, the MGMP in Selakau District was temporarily suspended to DOI: 10.18196/umygrace.v2i1.413 (University of Muhammadiyah Yogyakarta Undergraduate Conference) Social Humanities, Religious Studies and Law_Volume 2 Issue 1 (2022) "Strengthening Youth Potential for Sustainable Innovation" 49 prevent further transmission. Her goal for now is to continue his master's degree and seek scholarships so that she can become a professional teacher who can teach students professionally as well. Her perception of Teacher Professional Development is that it really helps teachers in the learning process in the classes they teach.
Teacher Professional Development helps me compile materials and use a variety of teaching media so it really helps me when students are bored with ordinary material. (Participant 2) The next participant is a female teacher from SMP Negeri 3 Selakau, who also teaches English and has been teaching for 11 years. She has participated in PPG in 2019 and MGMP in 2011 until now. She managed to enter PPG through the test and successfully passed. For MGMP, sometimes she can do it once a month or once a week, and it all depends on the agency that regulates it. There, participant and other teachers discussed media, innovations in education, learning assignments and others. There also, the teachers share their experiences and familiarize themselves with their fellow English teachers as well. For Teacher Professional Education, participants said that the time is divided into two, namely online and offline, both of which run for two months. When he joined PPG, she had been teaching at the school for 5 years. The activities he participates in in PPG are group work, doing assignments, and attending online meetings. According to this junior high school teacher, there are many useful activities in Teacher Professional Development, because according to her, students at SMP Negeri 3 Selakau still lack technological knowledge, so teachers must find ways so that students can adapt to technologies related to education. This teacher has learned many new things after participating in Teacher Professional Development because many things he has learned at PPG and MGMP, such as using teaching materials with new media with modern technology can be applied in real classes. The obstacle she faced while running PPG was that it was difficult for her to focus because she has a baby who is still breastfeeding, fortunately during group work the tasks she gets can be shared fairly with her group mates. When the pandemic started, this teacher said that all the Teacher Professional Development that she participated in was done completely online, so it was very difficult for her at that time. According to her perception of Teacher Professional Development as a junior high school teacher who teaches English, it is a loss if the teacher does not implement it, because Teacher Professional Development can make teachers creative, can develop the learning process, can develop ideas and innovations, so that teachers can apply the use of technology. in the learning process and become a bit of an expert in terms of Science Technology.

After participating in various Teacher
Professional Development, I have become more confident in teaching. With the help of other teachers and the experience and knowledge gained from Teacher Professional Development, I can apply the new things I have learned and discovered into the classroom that I teach in the learning process, now students are familiar with me because they often use technology in the learning process. -Participant 3 Next is a teacher who has been teaching since 2006 at SMP Negeri 1 Selakau and the subject he teaches is English, so he has been teaching for 16 years. He had attended Teacher Professional Education in 2015 in Bogor, at the Jakarta State University branch to get certification. He also attended the MGMP but he attended in two places, and in one semester there were 6 meetings so the meeting was held once a week. This teacher also participates in Supervision at school, and usually at school it is done once every semester. To participate in Teacher Professional Education, this teacher registers through the local government channel, because he teaches in public schools. This teacher attended Teacher Professional Education ten times, from morning to night. He received training in Teacher Professional Education before he taught at SMP Negeri 1 Selakau. In Teacher Professional Education himself, he learned many things such as evaluation of teacher teaching, teaching techniques, teaching practice, teacher assessment, peer teaching. According to him, Teacher Professional Education is the most helpful because he gets materials and training that improve the quality of his teaching. The MGMP is useful, but the scale of the teachers who follow it are teachers from the local area, unlike Professional Teacher Education which has a national scale. However, according to this teacher, MGMP can uniform various materials among English teachers. The obstacle in participating in the MGMP is the distance to get to the meeting place, indeed when he attended Teacher Professional Education the distance was further, but the teacher said it was different because the education was only carried out once not many times like the MGMP. During the past pandemic, according to this teacher, there was a distance and time limiting Teacher Professional Development activities, such as following health protocols, reducing meeting times, and meeting online. His perception of Teacher Professional Development is that he finds it very helpful because he can learn a lot from other teachers while attending the MGMP, and he also said that by taking Teacher Professional Education, he can apply learning in the classroom with various techniques, evaluations . The next participant is a female teacher who teaches English at SMP Negeri 1 Selakau. She has been teaching for 11 years. She took part in the MGMP and Teacher Professional Education in 2020. She was registered by the government to take part in the MGMP somewhere DOI: 10.18196/umygrace.v2i1.413 (University of Muhammadiyah Yogyakarta Undergraduate Conference) Social Humanities, Religious Studies and Law_Volume 2 Issue 1 (2022) "Strengthening Youth Potential for Sustainable Innovation" 50 while his Teacher Professional Education was also registered by the government to take part in Teacher Professional Education. Of course, she also took the test before being declared passed to take the Teacher Professional Education. She followed the education for four months online. He participated in Teacher Professional Education activities when the school was in the midsemester examination period, so sometimes she had to leave the classroom and give assignments to students to focus on Teacher Professional Education activities. Meanwhile, she held MGMP once a week after he taught because she had to follow an agreement from the principal. This year, she said she had participated in various activities at MGMP such as creating innovative works and inviting several speakers. The activities she participated in in Teacher Professional Education also varied, such as group work, submitting assignments on time, and presentations. After all that, only then did she get a grade and she felt lucky because she managed to pass. According to her, Teacher Professional Development helps teachers because by participating in these activities teachers find new information, new knowledge, can make a lesson as interesting as possible.

Teachers who participate in various Teacher
The obstacles she got when participating in Teacher Professional Development such as Teacher Professional Education during the pandemic were an inadequate internet network, stamina and mentality had to be maintained because from morning to night,s he would participate in these activities with piled up tasks, also had to have source.
To deal with the slow internet network, this teacher was forced to install Wi-Fi in her home so that she can take part in Teacher Professional Education activities comfortably without any obstacles. According to hers, Teacher Professional Development helps teachers to be active in asking questions, speaking and expressing opinions. This teacher's perception of Teacher Professional Development is that through the activities and activities that are there, the teacher can add insight, even though the time is short, the knowledge she gets is very much. With Teacher Professional Development, teachers can easily teach their students in the classroom. Based on these findings, it can be concluded that teachers' perception of Teacher Professional Development is that they perceive training, activities, and assignments to develop their teaching abilities, although here the teachers that the researchers interviewed were only active in some Teacher Professional Development such as Education Teacher Profession and Subject Teacher Deliberation. Based on the results of the interviews above, it can be concluded that the teachers who participate in Teacher Professional Education feel that their teaching abilities as teachers have increased, because teachers are required to always develop. One study states that competent and professional teachers make a significant contribution to improving the quality of education and learning activities as well as the quality of education (Arifa & Prayitno, 2019). There are also other studies that say that being a professional teacher means studying the material, structure, and concepts of the subjects to be taught, designing and developing creatively the subjects to be taught, continuously improving and developing academic qualifications, providing information, and communicating technology (Zulfitri, Setiawati, & Ismaini, 2019). And with regard to MGMP, many teachers say that thanks to collaborating and collaborating with other teachers, they can apply interesting teaching materials and media in the classroom, this is in line with a study that examined the effects of collaboration between teachers in MGMP, namely MGMP can improve professional competence and pedagogic competence. This conclusion is based on the teachers' ability to create learning situations that are relevant to students' learning activities and are based on scientific concepts. When a result, as students participate in class activities, the learning activities become more appealing to them (Purwoko, Andayani, Muntar, & Diartha, 2017). There are also other studies that are in line with the results of the interviews of researchers, namely teachers can make good learning plans because teachers are always active and creative in participating in MGMP activities so that these teachers can carry out a good learning process in class and can do a good assessment of learning outcomes as well. It is known that the reason is because each school in this study always provides all the facilities and needs of the teachers who participate in the MGMP programs and activities (Nurlaeli & Saryono, 2018). The results of the interview related to how teachers conduct during the pandemic are also in line with a study that examined pre-service teachers and in-service teachers who carried out Teacher Professional Development during the pandemic, namely by conducting Teacher Professional Development by means of Online Learning or Online Coaching (Hartshorne et al., 2020). Regarding teachers' perceptions of Teacher Professional Development, there are also articles that are in line with the results of researcher interviews, namely workshops, self-monitoring, teacher support groups, peer teaching and observation which are very useful and improve teachers' teaching skills (Evişen, 2021).
The development of Teacher Professional Development is very important for the community because with the increase in the quality of teachers, the quality of graduates from each school will also develop. Not only that, TPD will make teachers diligent and motivated in teaching. In the social field, mastery of public speaking is useful. At TPD, teachers will improve various skills, including public speaking skills. Therefore, it is very important to develop TPD in order to improve the quality of education.

Conclusion and Recommendation
The conclusion is that the perception of junior high school teachers who teach English towards Teacher