VISSTE 2022

Virtual Summer School on Teacher Education (ViSSTE) 2022 commenced with an internal meeting initiated by the Elementary School Teacher Education (Pendidikan Guru Sekolah Dasar - PGSD) lecturers at UPI Campus in Cibiru. This meeting resulted in the theme of ViSSTE, namely Strengthening Elementary Education through SDGs by Focus Group Discussion and Research Collaboration. Subsequently, the program progressed to a series of Focus Group Discussions (FGDs) involving prospective supervisors (mentors) from universities across Indonesia, Thailand, Papua New Guinea, and the Philippines who would participate in ViSSTE. The potential participants hailed from various institutions such as Universitas Pendidikan Indonesia, Universitas Negeri Malang - Indonesia, Yala Rajabhat University – Thailand, Mindanao State University Marawi Campus – the Philippines, Philippine Normal University South Luzon – the Philippines, and Monkayo College of Art, Science, and Technology – the Philippines. Following the FGDs, it was agreed that all universities except Goroka University in Papua New Guinea and Monkayo College of Art, Science, and Technology in the Philippines would partake in ViSSTE 2022 due to readiness and scheduling constraints.

The participants of ViSSTE hailed from five universities in the Philippines, Thailand, and Indonesia, totaling 31 attendees, with 11 from Indonesia, 5 from Thailand, and 15 from the Philippines. The Lecture Sessions featured expert speakers in various fields, aiming to stimulate participants' creative ideas. These sessions spanned five days from September 26 to September 30, 2022. Besides attending lectures, delegates were divided into groups and entered breakout rooms for more intensive interaction, fostering collaboration and research synergy. At the end of the lecture sessions on September 30, 2022, each delegation showcased artistic performances representing their respective countries. Although the lecture sessions concluded, ViSSTE 2022 proceeded to Research and Collaboration Sessions. The activities were also broadcasted by TVRI Bandung Station on September 30, 2022.

The Research and Collaboration Sessions occurred in small groups, with supervisors and delegates arranging meeting times via WhatsApp Groups and conducting meetings through Zoom or Google Meetings. To monitor activities, each delegate was required to fill out a logbook as evidence of their research and collaboration efforts. All groups completed their research processes and prepared manuscripts for submission to reputable national and international journals by December 30, 2022. Research findings were also disseminated at the International Conference on Elementary Education (ICEE) 2022 organized by the Elementary Education Study Program, UPI Postgraduate School in collaboration with Universitas Negeri Padang Postgraduate Program in Elementary Education on November 26, 2022. The research results were also presented at the closing ceremony held on Friday, December 16, 2022, which consisted of presentations and a Q&A session, with enthusiastic participation from nearly every attendee. In the end, we gave the awards to the five best participants