PROFESSIONAL LEARNING NETWORK ACTIVITIES OF INDONESIAN TEACHERS: DIFFERENTIAL ITEM FUNCTIONING ANALYSIS OF TEACHERS’ BACKGROUNDS

Abstract

Teachers’ professional development was gradually shifting to the learning paradigm. Developing a professional learning network (PLN) using social media platforms was one method of teachers’ learning. Therefore, this research aimed to investigate the level and differences of activity of teachers when engaged in social mediabased PLN using a non-experimental quantitative design. A total of 504 teachers were sampled, and data were collected using PLN Activities Questionnaire (TPLNAQ). Furthermore, the Winsteps application was used to perform the Rasch model analysis. The findings indicated that all teachers sampled had a moderate level of social media-based PLN activities. The demographic factor of qualifications significantly differed between teachers who joined the social media-based PLN. However, some instrument items showed significant differences in responses to the demographic factors of the teachers sampled, namely gender, age, teaching experience, qualifications, and certification.