Praxeology Concept: Investigating the Actions of Primary School Teachers in Achieving Arabic Teaching

This study presents the results of an investigation of Arabic teachers' actions at the primary school level in achieving the objectives of teaching and learning Arabic. This study used a descriptive qualitative approach with two data collection techniques: observations and interviews. The collected data then were analyzed using a didactic anthropological theory based on three main components: the teachers' desire (want) to act, the means or methods used by the teachers, and the results or objectives (end) achieved by the teacher's actions. The results of this study showed that first, Arabic teachers had a strong desire to overcome the problems faced by the students, especially in the demotivating aspect of studying Arabic. Second, from the results of those desires, the Arabic teachers determined and used several methods such as presenting the materials using songs, cartoon videos and integrating Islamic religious knowledge. Third, the actions or methods used by the Arabic teachers resulted in positive outcomes in teaching and learning Arabic for students at the primary school level.


Introduction
Education is the main factor in realizing the quality of human resources, including the quality of students. In improving the quality of the students, especially in teaching and learning, it is very dependent on teachers. Therefore, teachers need to have professional ability. Improving teacher performance in madrasa requires professional teachers (Sanusi et al., 2020).
According to Solikhah (2014), professional teachers are teachers who are able to generate high-quality graduates, despite the students who are from low quality input. Therefore, the efforts to improve teacher performance are absolutely conducted by teachers because improving teacher performance will have an impact on the quality of national education. Thus, the efforts to improve teacher performance must become the core framework of every educational or learning process carried out.

Arabiyât
In this regard, performance improvement involving madrasas and all stakeholders must be synergistically interwoven, especially teachers as the main actors and the frontline in realizing quality education. Therefore, any improvement efforts made to improve the quality of education will not have a significant effect without the support of professional and qualified teachers.
Teacher quality is one of the elements in education aiming to achieve student academic success (Vagi et al., 2019). In its implementation, the main concern of teachers is to improve teaching and learning quality so as to obtain maximum student learning outcomes (Ye and Law, 2019). Thus, teachers play a major role in educational development, especially those held formally in schools. In the context of informal learning, an educator also has the same demands, namely improving the quality of teaching and learning aspects.
The results of a study conducted by Nousiainen state that in the current digitalization era, teachers should be able to combine technology with pedagogy and develop active classrooms to encourage cooperative interaction (Sutrisno et al., 2018). In addition, teachers need to have professional standards by mastering teaching and learning materials and strategies that can encourage the students to study seriously (Nousiainen et al., 2018).
It is in line with the Law of the Republic of Indonesia Number 14 of 2005 concerning Teachers and Lecturers in Article 2 paragraph (1) stating that teachers have a position as professionals at the level of primary education, secondary education, and early childhood education in the formal education appointed in accordance with regulations and legislation. Article 4 also explains that the position of teachers as professionals as referred to Article 2 paragraph (1) functioning to improve teachers' dignity and teachers' roles as learning agents to improve the quality of national education.
Teachers as professionals will be reflected in the performance of the implementation of their duties indicated by expertise, both in material and method. Sauri emphasizes that professional teachers are human resource figures who can become "masters" so that the role of schools and communities can run as expected .
Professional teachers play a role in implementing the national education system and realizing the goals of national education including developing the potential of students to become human beings who believe and fear God Almighty, have noble character, are healthy, knowledgeable, capable, creative, independent, and become democratic and responsible citizens (Dewi, 2015). Professional teachers are teachers who are well educated and trained, and have rich experience in their fields. The notion of being educated and trained is not only obtaining formal education, but also having to master various teaching and learning strategies and techniques, mastering educational foundations, and mastering the field of study to be taught (Suprihatiningrum, 2013).
Furthermore, in terms of providing education and optimizing teaching and learning in madrasas, it requires a strategy to improve teacher performance because teacher performance in madrasas is a fundamental element that needs special attention Arabiyât from all parties, especially from the principal, supervisors, and other stakeholders. This is in line with the statement that professional teacher performance is able to support the achievement of higher quality educational processes and outputs (Barnawi & Arifin, 2014;Asmarani, 2020;Sugiyarta et al., 2020;Nurbayan et al., 2021).
However, the problem of teacher performance is not a simple problem. It is a complex problem because it involves many elements that are interrelated (interrelation), influence (interaction) and depend on each other (interdependence), especially for the development of the students. It is because the teacher performance will have an impact on the students' excellence, both in academics, morals, and skills.
In all educational activities in the madrasa, teachers hold the most strategic position in the front row in interacting with the students in the classroom and outside the classroom. Therefore, in term of education, teachers must be the starting point in their placement, especially regarding the human rights of teachers as individuals, professional stakeholders, teachers, community members, and citizens that need to be prioritized in their empowerment.
Based on the above explanation, it is very clear that the figure and presence of teachers in educational practice is very vital. Teachers are not only the main mover of educational practice itself, but also their existence and role are core factors in realizing good and quality education (Al-Muslim et al., 2020;Felix, 2020). If teachers can carry out their duties and obligations properly, it is certain that the graduates generated will be as expected. On the other hand, if teachers do not carry out their duties and responsibilities properly, the quality graduates are difficult to realize. The amount of responsibility and expectations born by those teachers make teachers always faced with the obligations and demands to be able to produce optimal performance. Accordingly, the importance of teacher performance is inseparable from its central role in the educational practices. Teachers are the guarantor of the quality of education held in educational institutions from an early learning age such as those found in madrasas or higher education institutions. Therefore, what the teachers do will greatly affect the development of students and the educational institution itself. In other words, an educational institution or madrasa that wants to improve the quality of its education, must pay serious attention to the quality of its teachers or teaching staff, including the ability of teachers to solve problems, mastery of theory and technology, especially in teaching and learning Arabic.
However, based on the observations, the researchers found that some Arabic teachers in a school or a madrasa were not fully maximized in mastering Arabic language materials, one of which was that they did not explore the teaching materials that would be delivered to the students, and needed to be improved in terms of methods and the use of technology media in teaching and learning processes. In addition, it was found the students were less enthusiastic in following Arabic lessons. This is partly influenced by the low awareness of teachers in making teaching and learning media that have the potential to arouse students' enthusiasm so that the students are happy in participating in Arabic lessons. This of course makes the educational process and teaching and learning processes in madrasas only conducted as they are, without certain changes that are expected to provide an increase in the quality of education itself.

Arabiyât
Indeed, in this study the researchers were interested in analyzing more deeply related to the Arabic teaching and learning processes carried out by the teachers in order to achieve the formulated Arabic teaching and learning objectives. The results of the investigation were analyzed using an anthropological didactic perspective in which it proposed an epistemology model known as praxeology (Chevallard, 2006).
Arabic teachers' knowledge and didactics can be described by the concept of praxeology consisting of two components, namely praxis (practical block) and logos (theoretical block). A practical block consists of two components, namely a type of task or problem to be solved and techniques or several techniques to solve the problem. Thus, when discussing teachers' Arabic knowledge and didactics, it cannot be separated from teachers' ability to solve problems in Arabic teaching and learning and the various techniques needed to solve those problems (Bosch and Gascón, 2006;Rasmussen, 2016;Wijayanti and Winslow, 2017).

Method
This study used a qualitative design with a descriptive type to describe a phenomenon experienced by participants directly in the field (Huberman and Miles, 2002). The phenomenon referred to here is the experience of research participants regarding the actions used to obtain positive results in the Arabic learning process.
This study involved three participants, Arabic teachers at an A-accredited primary school (SD/MI) located in Central Kalimantan Province. The three participants were purposively chosen based on their willingness without intervention from anyone. The researcher also gave the opportunity for the participants to resign if they felt they were not happy in providing data related to the study carried out (Hammersley and Traianou, 2012).
This study used two data collection techniques consisting of observation and interviews. The data analysis techniques used in this study were data collection, data reduction, data display, and drawing conclusion (Huberman and Miles, 2002). The conclusions of the research results were presented using anthropological didactic theory (praxeology) with several components including the desire (want) to act from the teachers, the means or methods used by the teachers, and the outcomes or objectives (end) achieved from the actions of the teachers. The use of this theory is expected to provide a comprehensive presentation of the actions of Arabic teachers in the implementation of ideal learning.

Results
Based on what the researchers described above, this study examined the performance of Arabic teachers at a primary school presented using anthropological didactic components (praxeology) in order to achieve the objectives of teaching and learning Arabic.

Actions Based on Desire
The first component in praxeology is the teacher's desire to act. In the process of taking action in Arabic teaching and learning processes at the primary school level, the teachers explained several reasons as shown in the following interview results: Based on the results of the interviews above, it can be concluded that the actions taken by Arabic teachers at the primary school level are based on several phenomena, namely: the lack of student motivation in learning Arabic and various obstacles faced by students during the teaching and learning process. These phenomena underlie the emergence of Arabic teachers' desire to examine the various obstacles faced in order to determine the appropriate actions to overcome those problems.

Actions in Determining the Means or Method
The next action of the Arabic teachers included in the praxeology component is to determine the means or method carried out in teaching and learning Arabic at the primary school level. This is described in the following interview results:

Participant 3 Because for me studying Arabic is part of deepening Islam, then the action I take is to link the Arabic teaching and learning materials to the interests of learning Arabic for those of us who are Muslims. I try to instill in their hearts that Arabic is the language of the Qur'an, the language of the Prophet Muhammad (PBUH), and the language of the inhabitants of heaven.
Based on the results of the above interviews, the researchers conclude that there are several ways proposed by Arabic teachers at the primary school level as the actions to achieve the objectives of teaching and learning Arabic, namely arranging Arabic vocabulary material in the form of songs so that it is easy to memorize, presenting Arabic teaching and learning materials using cartoon videos presented through the Filmora application, and instilling the importance of learning Arabic for those of us who are Muslims to primary school students by confirming that Arabic is the language of the Qur'an, the language of the Prophet Muhammad (PBUH), and the language of the inhabitants of heaven.
Those three methods are expected to give positive results on the Arabic language learning outcomes of primary school students. The description of the objectives or the outcomes of the desire and the actions taken by the teachers is further described in the points below.

Outcomes or Objectives Achieved from the Actions
The researchers also describe the third praxeology component, namely the outcomes or objectives achieved based on the actions taken by the Arabic teachers. From several desires and actions implemented by the Arabic teachers, the researchers found several learning achievements in teaching and learning Arabic from primary school students based on the following interview results: Participant

They will be excited to learn Arabic when I start it by stating that Arabic is the language of the inhabitants of heaven.
Based on the results of the interviews above, the actions carried out by Arabic teachers at the primary school level have proven to give positive outcomes to the Arabic teaching and learning processes. Actions such as arranging Arabic vocabularies in the form of songs are proven to make it easier for students to memorize the vocabulary. Likewise, the actions of teachers who present Arabic teaching and learning materials using cartoon videos are also proven to be able to increase students' motivation to learn at the primary school level. Then, the integration of Arabic materials with religious understanding such as Arabic is the language of the Qur'an, the language of the Prophet Muhammad (PBUH), and the language of the inhabitants of heaven can also increase their love for the religion of Islam they profess.

Discussion
This study investigated the actions carried out by Arabic teachers at the primary school level to achieve maximum Arabic learning outcomes or objectives. In this study, the researchers found several important findings regarding the actions carried out by the teachers by adopting the components of the anthropological didactic theory as a perspective in describing the outcome of the performance in the Arabic teaching and learning processes. The adoption of this theory as expressed by the researchers above is expected to provide comprehensive data regarding appropriate actions to achieve maximum Arabic learning outcomes.
From the results of this study, the researchers found that the Arabic teachers first analyzed various kinds of problems faced by primary school students following Arabic teaching and learning processes in the classroom. The analysis process needs to be carried out in order to determine the appropriate actions in order to obtain positive learning outcomes (Wahyudi, 2012). The results of the analysis found one major problem faced by the students, namely the lack of motivation in learning Arabic. Lack of motivation in learning certainly has a negative impact on achieving the intended learning outcomes because motivation is the main factor of students' learning interest (Bower, 2019;Indriani, 2020;Chowdhury et al., 2021;Mubarak et al., 2021). Chandra et al (2016) in his study also reveals the same thing that the loss of learning motivation has implications for the inability to achieve the learning objectives that have been formulated.
Most people may have noticed that the problems in learning Arabic usually consist of two things, which are linguistic and non-linguistic. The former refers to problems faced by either the students (or learners) which are directly related to the language itself; such as listening, speaking, reading and writing skills. Meanwhile, the latter refers to problems which may influence -and can even ruin the success of the learning programs being implemented; such as motivation and psychology (Nurtresnaningsih, 2018;Sarbaini, 2018;Rahmawati and Febriani, 2021). The teachers' knowledge regarding both problems is very important, so as to minimize the existing problem(s) and find the right solution. Only then can the process of learning Arabic Arabiyât (within minimum limits) be done properly. Merely complaining without even doing anything (even to look for a solution) is utopian.
Those demotivating problems require Arabic teachers to take solutive actions. Based on the results of this study, the researchers found several actions implemented by Arabic teachers including, first, presenting Arabic vocabularies using songs that are easy for students to memorize. This action is proven to provide benefits because the students at the primary school level still have the nuances of children who are identical to singing and playing so that a breakthrough strategy or media is needed according to those characteristics (Shin, 2017). The results of those actions also prove that the Arabic vocabulary arranged by the teacher using songs is proven to make the primary school students easy to memorize it. This is in line with the results of a study conducted by Mubarak showing that Arabic vocabulary presented using song media proved to be effective in supporting the memorization of Arabic vocabulary for both school and university students .
Second, another action taken by Arabic teachers is presenting Arabic materials using cartoon videos. The materials presented using cartoon videos as reported by Ilmiani has made a positive contribution in overcoming the problems of teaching and learning Arabic . This is also supported by the results of the interview with one participant who said that the students' motivation at the primary school level increased when the materials being taught was presented using cartoon video media. This phenomenon may not be separated from the shift in learning culture caused by technological developments that demand changes from conventional based learning models to technology-based learning (Haniah, 2014;Rho and Kang, 2019;Jung et al., 2019). The demands of the impact of technological developments in fact have a great influence on the learning process, especially in learning Arabic. Researchers have proven it by conducting several studies related to various kinds of media as an alternative in learning Arabic (Albantani, 2019;Linur and Mubarak, 2020;Audina and Mubarak, 2021).
Third, the last action informed by the Arabic teachers is to give confirmation that learning Arabic is important for understanding Islam. The confirmation is realized by instilling beliefs in students that Arabic is the language of the Qur'an, the language of the Prophet Muhammad (PBUH), and the language of the inhabitants of heaven. The Qur'an should be a concern for humans to study and understand the contents in it because the Qur'an is the first human life guide after As-Sunnah. To learn it, of course, it must begin with mastering the language used in the Qur'an, Arabic (Letmiros, 2019). Therefore, as a Muslim, of course, learning Arabic is a must in order to understand the points of discussion that are described globally in the Qur'an and As-Sunnah. The books used to understand the essence of the two books are also presented in Arabic.
Based on the three findings above, the actions taken by the teachers according to the anthropological didactic theory proved to have positive implications for the learning outcomes of Arabic, especially at the primary school level. Three actions adopted from the components of anthropological didactic theory describe the teacher's ability to solve the problems faced by the students during ongoing Arabic teaching and lerning processes. This certainly proves the professionalism and quality of a teacher as Arabiyât expressed by Ye and Law (2019) stating that teachers play an important role in building education in terms of an effort to achieve the specified learning objectives. Likewise, Bramwell in his research also confirms that the success factor of a teacher in the learning process cannot be separated from the creativity of the teacher (Bramwell et al., 2011). Indeed, there are no teachers who are truly creative or uncreative (Kaufman and Baer, 2004). Basically, a teacher has been involved in creativity in several aspects such as planning and improvising lessons to meet the needs, interests, and abilities of certain students while adapting to the formal curriculum and available resources (Rejskind, 2000;Richards, 2007).

Conclusions
This study presented the results of an investigation of the actions carried out by Arabic teachers at the primary school level in order to achieve the objectives of teaching and learning Arabic. Those actions were analyzed using an anthropological didactic theory perspective based on three main components consisting of the existence of the desire (want) to act from a teacher, the means or methods used by the teacher, and the outcomes or objectives (ends) achieved from the teacher's actions. The results of this study showed several findings. First, Arabic teachers had a strong desire to overcome the problems faced by the students, especially in the students' demotivating aspect to learn Arabic. Second, from the results of the desire, the Arabic teachers determined several means such as presenting material using songs, cartoon videos, and integrating Islamic religious knowledge. Third, the actions or methods carried out by Arabic teachers resulted in positive outcomes in teaching and learning Arabic for students at the primary school level. The researcher recommends further research on the process of teacher action in an anthropological didactic perspective in learning Arabic for junior high school (SMP/MTS), high school (SMA/MA) and college levels.