The urgency of Merdeka Belajar policy is certainly a challenge for teachers to carry out the learning process in schools. This policy makes teachers have to independently find methods and ways of learning that suit the situation in school. This study aims to explore teachers' perceptions regarding Merdeka Belajar policy that will be applied today. A mixed research design was used in this study by involving thematic content analysis to get an overview of teachers' perceptions about the implementation of Merdeka Belajar policy at schools. Then the researcher tested the extent of the teacher's readiness to use a portfolio instrument which was an implementation of Merdeka Belajar. This study involved 30 teachers who received a set of open-ended questionnaires, conducted the FGD process, and filled out a portfolio assessment questionnaire. The results showed that the majority of teachers considered Merdeka Belajar policy to be an effective alternative in providing instruction to students in accordance with the resources owned by the school. However, technically, teachers feel the need to be given structured socialization, clear guidance, and freedom based on the abilities and personalities of teachers in schools. In addition, the percentage of portfolio instruments usage seems to have been widely practiced in learning activities.

Character education is an inseparable part of the program of strengthening and improving the quality of education in various aspects of life. Character education is manifested in a variety of activities and conditions that allow each school to be able to optimize the cognitive abilities of children in addition to strengthening their morals and character as a whole. Each school has advantages and good mechanisms that support the implementation of the character education program the study was conducted to explore and obtain a picture of best practices carried out by leading schools implementing the character education strengthening program (PPK). Qualitative research with a collective case study design is used in this study. There are 3 excellent schools that become research locus with 18 respondents who involved as research participants selected using purposive sampling. Exploration was implemented using the interview method, focus group discussion, and direct observation. The results showed that the implementation of character education conducted at the three schools was very effective because it was supported by various policies, concrete actions, and the consistency and seriousness of the school in supporting the program. The best practices that might be used as a model by other schools include praying together, conducting joint worship routines, rotating cults, conducting environmental love programs, literacy, and cultural love programs

Pandemic COVID-19 has changed the learning process to become virtual. One consequence of these changes is related to online learning methods and schemes which in fact experience various technical and substantive constraints. The case study research design was carried out to strengthen the hypothesis that self-introspection is able to make learning more optimal. Learning outcomes before and after self-introspection are measured using thematic content analysis. The results show that there are changes in emotional feelings to be more positive, reduced task load, and reduced stress levels with methods and learning schemes that follow the principle of self-introspection. Thus, this study explains that if every teacher is able to realize the location of deficiencies and errors in the teaching process, it will minimize the occurrence of psychological disorders for students and be able to improve learning outcomes for the better.